Goal of the Course and Learning Outcomes

In the introduction, the attendees, who are coming from different fields and with different pre-existing knowledge, should obtain/repeat in a brief manner the fundamental understanding of mechanical, electronic and optical/optoelectronic properties of solids, followed by an overview of the variety of different composite materials, in order to be able to understand the later topics to be discussed.

The second part of the course will show how the mechanical, electronics and optical properties of solids are changing when the size of the crystals/particles decreases below about 10-20 nm. The issue of the particle separation and connectivity will be discussed as well in order to show why the majority of the unique properties of nano-sized materials, such as quantum confinement, changes of colour, localization of phonons and plasmons etc. requires a sufficient separation of the "active" particles. We shall briefly "touch" the possible future applications of quantum dots in the miroelectronics and optoelectronics "after the present silicon age". In contrast, nanocomposites with excellent mechanical properties need a high connectivity. In the context of these fundamentals, we shall also briefly discuss the properties and possible future applications of carbon nanotubes.

In section 3 we shall briefly discuss the preparation and properties of carbon- and polymer-based nanocomposites reinforced by inorganic fillers, such as graphite fibres, clays, carbon nanotubes etc. Section 4 summarizes briefly the fundamentals of the deposition techniques for the preparation of inorganic functional, hard, self-lubricans and superhard nanocomposites, which will be covered in sections 5 and 6 with a strong emphasis on their understanding. The course will finish with an overview of the present large-scale industrial applications of hard and superhard nanocomposite coatings and their expected future development.

The course will conclude with a brief summary and discussion in which all attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions.

6- Hard and Superhard nanocomposites with high thermal stability and oxidation resistance for machining, such as drilling, milling, turning, forming, …

6.1. Different approaches to superhard coatings, their advantages and drawbacks:

7-Large-scale industrial applications of hard and superhard nanocomposites in comparison to othe r advanced coatings including polycrystalline diamond.

8-Summary and discussion.

Stan Veprek was born on May 27, 1939 in Pisek, Czech Republic. He is citizen of Czech Republic and Switzerland, and married to Dr. Maritza G. J. Veprek-Heijman (citizen of The Netherlands and Switzerland). Stan has 4 children: Miroslav (33 y), Ratko Goran (30 y), Nynke Anna (18 y) and Libuse Hannah (16 y).

After his initial research work in plasma diagnostics and spectroscopy, Stan Veprek began his work on the deposition of thin films by means of plasma CVD 40 years ago at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Science where he started his scientific career after an education as a high school teacher (in Ceske Budejovice) followed by the study of physics at the Charles University in Prague (graduated 1962). His first major result was the deposition of nanocrystalline silicon, nc-Si, by means of chemical transport in plasma (published in 1968; nowadays, nc-Si is an important material for large-scale microelectronics, flat panel displays and thin films solar cells). In 1968 he followed an invitation of Prof. H. Schäfer to the University Münster (Germany), where he continued his work in plasma chemistry and published various papers on the effects of low pressure glow discharge plasmas on the chemistry of heterogeneous systems. In 1971 he moved to the University of Zürich, Switzerland, where he received his PhD in Chemistry (1972) and habilitation in inorganic chemistry (1977). He became involved in the research of the plasma-wall interactions in nuclear fusion devices. In 1976 he proposed the protective coating of the inner wall with boron carbide, and in the following years developed "boronization" by means of plasma CVD, which found successful application in several large fusion devices around the world.

His continuing interest in nc-Si resulted in, among others, classical papers on Raman scattering. Together with the Swiss national museum he developed a new plasma-chemical method for the restoration and conservation of archeological metallic artifacts.

In 1988 he was appointed full Professor and head of the Institute for Chemistry of Inorganic Materials at the Technical University of Munich, where he continued his research on a- and nc-Si, organometallic CVD, heteroepitaxy of 3C-SiC and others. Here, also the design principle for superhard materials was born in 1995. In this field, he continued his collaboration with Prof. Li Shizhi (Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China) and begun a collaboration with a Czech company SHM, which pioneered the industrialization of superhard nanocomposites coatings based on his design concept. His latest work focuses on the understanding of the formation of the superhard nanocomposites by spinodal phase segregation and of their mechanical properties by means of combined ab intio DFT and thermodynamics studies (collaboration with Dr. R. F. Zhang (visiting scientist at TUM), Prof. A.S. Argon and D. M. Parks (Massachusetts Inst. of Technol. and other colleagues).

After his retirement from teaching at the TUM in 2004, he is still active in research projects (German Science Foundation and EU projects with international consortia). He is also teaching courses at the TUM and at the National University of Singapore. Only since January 2005 he was invited to give 38 invited and plenary lectures and two Keynote Lectures at international conferences.

Stan has published 368 papers and several book-chapters. The most recent book co-authored with Prof. C. Koch, I. Ovidko and S. Seal "Structural Nanocrystalline Materials" (Cambridge University Press 2007). He is co-editor of Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, and has co-organized various conferences and sessions at ISPC, MRS, ICMCTF and others, and served on several IUPAC and Int. Union of Vacuum Societies committees.

He has been teaching Professor and visiting scientist at several Universities and Research Institutions in China, Czech Republic, USA, Great Britain, Singapore and Japan.

He received the Silver Medal of the Societe d'Encouragement Pour la Recherche et l'Invention, Paris (1979), Silver Medal of the Masaryk University Brno (1991), Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h.c.) from the Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic (1999), the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences (2004) and the AVS John Thornton Memorial Award of the American Vacuum Society (2005). In 2003 he was appointed foreign member of the Commission I of Low-Temperature Plasma Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Branch Lublin.