Optical and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline ZrC thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition.

Thin ZrC films ( 90%) in the infrared region, characteristic of metallic behavior. Nanoindentation results indicated that films deposited under lower CH4 pressures exhibited slightly higher nanohardness and Young modulus values than films deposited under higher pressures. As a result, tribological characterization revealed that these films exhibited relatively high wear resistance and steady-state friction coefficients on the order of μ = 0.4.