Young's modulus
The main advantages of HIPIMS coatings include a denser coating morphology and an increased ratio of hardness to Young's modulus compared to conventional PVD coatings. Whereas comparable conventional nano-structured coatings have a hardness of 25 GPa and a Young's modulus of 460 GPa, the hardness of the new HIPIMS coating is higher than 30 GPa with a Young's modulus of 368 GPa. The ratio between hardness and Young's modulus is a measure of the toughness properties of the coating. The desirable condition is high hardness with a relatively small Young's modulus, such as can be found in HIPIMS coatings. Recently, innovative applications of HIPIMS coated surfaces for biomedical applications were reported by Rtimi et al.&lt;ref name="Growth of TiO2/Cu films by HiPIMS for accelerated bacterial loss of viability"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;