New quaternary Si-B-C-N materials are of great interest due to their potential applications in coating technologies and microelectronics. They can posses a useful set of properties such as extraordinary high thermal stability and oxidation resistance, high hardness, low stress, good adhesion and wide optical transparency window. Materials are prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering in plasma discharge (Balzers BAS 450 sputtering system). There are studied complex relationships between process parameters (composition of sputtered target, sputtering current, total pressure, gas mixture composition, rf substrate bias, temperature of the substrate, total gas flow), elemental composition of the films, their bonding structure, material structure and microstructure and their mechanical, electrical and optical properties.

Discharge plasma is analysed using mass spectrometer EQP 300 Hiden Analytical. There are studied processes of both physical and chemical sputtering of individual elements from various targets under various deposition conditions (configuration of the sputtering system, discharge mixture composition, substrate bias) and transfer of these elements, their reaction products and ionts of working gas on substrate.

Structures and properties of experimentally prepared materials are simulated (1) by ab-initio calculations, namely density functional theory as implemented in the CPMD (Car-Parrinello Molecular Dynamics) and PWSCF (Plane-Wave Self-Consistent Field) codes, and (2) b classical moleculer-dynamics calculations as implemented in the LAMMPS (Large Scale Atomistic and Molecular Parallel Simulator) and DLPOLY codes. Effects of elemental composition, material density, flux and energy of bombarding ions on characteristics of materials studied are analysed on atomic level. The characteristics of interest include amorphous (e.g. bonding statistics) or nanorystalline (e.g. crystal sizes) structure, role of individual elements, length and ionicity of bonds, elastic properties (e.g. bulk modulus), compressive stress, electronic structure and band gap or temperature stability of networks. Materials of interest include a-Si-B-C-N, a-C:H, a-SiN:H, nc-TiN/a-SiNx, fcc-TiSiCN or fcc-CrSiCN.