High-temperature nanoindentation of epitaxial ZrB2 thin films

We use in-situ heated nanoindentation to investigate the high-temperature nanomechanical properties of epitaxial and textured ZrB2 films deposited by magnetron sputtering. Epitaxial films deposited on 4H-SiC(0001) show a hardness decrease from 47 GPa at room temperature to 33 GPa at 600 °C, while the reduced elastic modulus does not change significantly. High resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) with selected area electron diffraction of the...