Christoph Fuger

TL;DR: Investigations on the brittle-ductile behavior of the various diborides reveal, that the metastable structures are more ductile than their stable counterparts (WB2, TcB2, etc.).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combine density functional theory and sophisticated experiments to show that the stability of α-WB2 thin films is basically influenced by point defects such as vacancies present in PVD materials.

TL;DR: Based on density functional theory, the authors suggested that metastable α-WB2 is a promising candidate combining very high hardness with high toughness, and the addition of Tantalum supports the crystallization of α-structured W1-xTaxB2-z, with only minor reduction in toughness.

TL;DR: In this paper , an anisotropic elastoplastic behavior in super-hard transition metal diboride-based thin films is reported. But the authors focus on hexagonal WB 2-z , showing that the AlB 2 structure is stabilized by B vacancies exhibiting its energetic minima at sub-stoichiometric WB 1.5 .

TL;DR: In this paper, the oxidation resistance of W1−xTaxB2−z thin films was experimentally investigated at temperatures up to 700 ˚ C. Ta alloying in sputter deposited WB2+z coatings led to decelerated oxide scale growth and a changed growth mode from paralinear to a more linear (but retarded) behavior with increasing Ta content.