The composition and structure of the boundary between superconducting and stabilizing layers in a taped high-temperature superconductor of the second generation are studied by means of scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The superconducting and stabilizing layers are fabricated on the basis of a GdBa2Cu3O y oxide layer and metallic silver, respectively. It is shown that nanosized pores 15–30 nm in diameter are located on the boundary from the side of silver layer. The presence of these pores likely determines the magnitude of the interface resistance between the superconducting and stabilizing layers.

A simple sample preparation technique for materials unstable in air has been developed for electron microscope studies. The materials already exist in the form of particles, or they can be transformed by mechanical grinding. The technique consists of several stages: preparation of perforated or thin carbon films as substrates, mechanical grinding and ultrasonic treatment of the material under investigation in a liquid substance to form a suspension, and dripping the suspension onto a substrate placed in a microscope holder beforehand, followed by immediately placing the holder in the preliminary pumping chamber of the microscope.

This work is devoted to obtaining metal-matrix composites with powderlike nanodiamond reinforcements. The following flowchart was accepted for investigations: mechanical alloying of the starting components in planetary mills with obtaining granules of composite materials and subsequent compacting the granules into a bulk material. To investigate mechanical alloying, a mixture of copper and brass powders was treated in a planetary mill. The difference in the coloration of components made it possible to investigate their stirring. It is established that an insufficient treatment time leads to the agglomeration of strengthening particles on the surface of granules, which results in a worsening of the mechanical characteristics. In the case of the uniform distribution of strengthening particles in the matrix, a high level of properties of composite materials is attained.

The structure of opal-ZnO composites is studied by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray phase analysis. It is shown that, under thermal treatment of infiltrated samples, a solid-phase reaction proceeds at the opal-ZnO interface. As a result, zinc silicate β-Zn2SiO4 and its high-temperature phase, willemite Zn2SiO4, are formed. The structure and emission properties of the nanocomposite are studied in relation to the degree of filling. For a sample subjected to 25 cycles of filling, luminescence controlled by the β-Zn2SiO4 phase is detected in the blue spectral region (at 430 nm). The angular dependences of the luminescence and reflection spectra of an opal-ZnO composite sample subjected to four cycles of filling show the effect of suppression of a spontaneous emission of zinc oxide in the photonic band gap.

It is shown by experiment that the doping of ZnO films with Group-IB acceptors—Cu, Ag, and Au—influences the photoluminescence spectra of the films as well as their electrical properties. Specifically, this reduces the emission in the UV region and intensifies it in the visible region. The respective distances of the Cu, Ag, and Au energy levels from the valence band are found to be 0.38, 0.20, and 0.45 eV.

We present data from tribological tests of composite materials in a metal-ceramic system in various working media. We have found that introduction of hard particles (silicon carbide) into a tin bronze matrix has a positive effect on the tribological properties of the composite. The size of the particles of strengthening phase must be larger than the depth of the working layer subjected to plastic deformation.