plasma plume. To achieve a columnar porous structure as well as a high growth rate of the thicker pc-ZrO 2 layer, a pulsed 1 kW laser was applied. The irradiation parameters (pulse duration 1 ms, power density 10 5 W/cm 2 ) were chosen such that conventional thermal evaporation without plasma formation occurred. The targets for the ZrO 2 deposition were pressed and sintered from amperite powder (Y 2 O 3 : 7.79 wt%, HfO 2 : 1.84 wt%, SiO 2 : 0.20 wt%, ZrO 2 : remaining).Investigation of Boundary Layer Reactions: By means of PLD with a relatively high pulse energy of 800 mJ and stronger focusing, the generation of otherwise undesired droplets of the target material is forced. Since the directional characteristic of the droplets differs from that of the plasma plume, the substrate can be arranged in such a way that predominantly droplets are deposited. Due to the high kinetic energy of the droplets, they are flattened on impact before they solidify. The resulting Al and Ti hillocks are typically 2 to 20 lm in diameter and 0.5 to 5 lm high. (Fig. 2) After droplet deposition, the Al/Cu and Ti/Cu samples were tempered (773 / 823 K, 100 / 300 min, atmosphere Ar 4.8, 10 5 Pa). The resulting composition changes were examined by EDX in the SEM and also by AES depth analysis. The preparation of cross-sections of deposited droplets by ion milling with 7 keV Kr ions proved to be particularly useful (Fig. 3). At such cross sections, the chemical composition in the vicinity of the interface was measured by EDX.Investigation of Roughness effects: Roughness values R a of the copper substrate between 0.03 and 1.1 lm were prepared using appropriate grinding agents (abrasive paper, grit size P80 to P2500). The roughness was determined by a mechanical profiler (MAHR Perthometer S8P) and averaging over typically three samples polished in the same manner.Bending bars with the dimensions 30 4.5 3 mm 3 were coated onto one face with an area of 30 4.5 mm 2 . These samples were then deformed by means of four-point bending where the coated surface was chosen as side face of the bending bar (cf. Fig. 4). Due to the bending deformation of the substrate, the coating is simultaneously subjected to a tensile load (Fig. 4, upper side) and a compressive load (lower side). To characterise the coating adherence quantitatively, the maximum substrate strains on the upper and lower sides of the bending bars were used. In particular, the critical spallation strains were determined where in the course of bending first spallings were visible to the naked eye under tensile and compressive load, respectively.Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are a class of materials that seek to combine the high strength and stiffness of a ceramic with the damage tolerance and toughness provided by a metal matrix. [1,2] Although most of the studies on MMCs are centered on the lightweight engineering materials titanium, aluminum and magnesium due to their attractive combination of improved mechanical properties and weight-saving potential, [3±5] there is also significant inter...