Age hardening in superhard ZrB2-rich Zr1-xTaxBy thin films

Abstract We recently showed that sputter-deposited Zr1-xTaxBy thin films have hexagonal AlB2-type columnar nanostructure in which column boundaries are B-rich for x 800 °C due mainly to recrystallization, column coarsening, and planar defect annihilation, all layers show hardness values above 34 GPa over the entire Ta range.