Book excerpt: Materials development has reached a point where it is difficult for a single material to satisfy the needs of sophisticated applications in the modern world. Nanocomposite films and coatings achieve much more than the simple addition of the constitutents OCo the law of summation fails to work in the nano-world. This book encompasses three major parts of the development of nanocomposite films and coatings: the first focuses on processing and properties, the second concentrates on mechanical performance, and the third deals with functional performance, including wide application areas ranging from mechanical cutting to solar energy and from electronics to medicine. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Magnetron Sputtered Hard and Yet Tough Nanocomposite Coatings With Case Studies: Nanocrystalline Tin Embedded in Amorphous SiNx (187 KB). Contents: Magnetron Sputtered Hard and Yet Tough Nanocomposite Coatings with Case Studies: Nanocrystalline TiN Embedded in Amorphous SiN x (S Zhang et al.); Magnetron Sputtered Hard and Yet Tough Nanocomposite Coatings with Case Studies: Nanocrystalline TiC Embedded in Amorphous Carbon (S Zhang et al.); Properties of Chemical Vapor Deposited Nanocrystalline Diamond and Nanodiamond/Amorphous Carbon Composite Films (S C Tjong); Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films (Z-Q Xu & A Kumar); Properties of Hard Nanocomposite Thin Films (J Musil); Nanostructured, Multifunctional Tribological Coatings (J J Moore et al.); Nanocomposite Thin Films for Solar Energy Conversion (Y-B Yin); Application of Silicon Nanocrystal in Non-Volatile Memory Devices (T P Chen); Nanocrystalline Silicon Films for Thin Film Transistor and Optoelectronic Applications (Y-J Choi et al.); Amorphous and Nanocomposite Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings for Biomedical Applications (T I T Okpalugo et al.); Nanocoatings for Orthopaedic and Dental Application (W-Q Yan). Readership: Undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, scientists, college and university professors, research professionals, technology investors and developers, research enterprises, R&D research laboratories, academic and research libraries."