The use of refractory and hard coatings is increasing due to the development of nanostructured composites which may conveniently combine high hardness and high toughness. As the structure and functional properties of nanostructured composites strongly depend on the synthesis method, it is of utmost importance to select the most appropriate technique for their preparation. So far, several physical and chemical deposition techniques have been used to successfully produce nanostructured composites based in ceramics. In this work, nanostructured titanium carbide films were deposited on tungsten substrates at a high growth rate by Activated Reactive Evaporation (ARE) at 500 and 600 °C in order to protect a tungsten device against liquid uranium. The crystal structure, lattice parameter, preferred orientation and grain size of the coatings were determined by XRD using Cu Kα radiation. The analysis of the film morphology was performed by SEM and AFM and their composition was analysed by AES and EPMA. Experimental results suggest that temperature was one of the most important parameters in the fabrication of nanostructured Ti-TiC composite films using propene as reactive atmosphere. Thus, nanostructured TiC0.6 coatings codeposited with a free-Ti phase were obtained at 500 °C. On the other hand, stoichiometric TiC coatings were obtained at 600 °C due to a higher energy of the carbon ions for reacting with evaporated Ti atoms. After annealing at 1000 °C, the stoichiometric films remained stable but a crack pattern was formed over all the film surface. Moreover, Ti0.6W0.4/TiC0.6 composite thin films were obtained at 500 °C. For these films the presence of a Ti0.6W0.4 ductile phase within the TiC0.6 layer was responsible for the avoidance of the film cracking.

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