Superhard rhenium diboride films: preparation and characterization

Recently, the superhardness of rhenium diboride was discovered. This study presents a first successful preparation and characterization of thin ReB2 films. The films were deposited by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The morphology, microstructure, and hardness of the films were investigated. The films are compact and continuous, with a preferred (002) orientation. The composite Vickers hardness of the film-substrate systems was measured, and the intrinsic hardness of the films was separated using an area law-of-mixtures approach taking into account the indentation size effect. The obtained films are found to be superhard: the intrinsic film hardness value (52 GPa) is close to that of the ReB2 bulk.