Increasing demands of industrial applications on long-lasting surface protection, enhanced mechanical, electrical and thermal properties, but also decoration or long term preservation of base materials requires development of new advanced functional coatings with unique properties. This is, however, not possible without an understanding of the complex relationships between microstructure, phase composition, stress state and mechanical and other physical properties of the coatings. The complexity of this problem thus calls for a multidisciplinary approach of materials science combining advanced experimental and modeling studies.

The attempt of the Group for Design and Architecture of Functional Materials Systems is to solve such fundamental problems related to structure-dependent functional properties of thin solid films prepared by unconventional processes in discharge plasmas, with the main focus on mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties.

Two lectures:

• Controlled Functionality of Thin Films Through Advanced Microstructural Design: From Nano- to Microscale

• Microstructure-Related Depth-Gradients of Mechanical Properties in Thin Nanocrystalline Films