Chromium (III) oxide is a technologically interesting material with attractive chemical, catalytic, magnetic and mechanical properties. It can be produced by different chemical and physical methods, for instance, by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition, thermal decomposition of chromium nitrate Cr(NO₃)₃ or ammonium dichromate (NH₄)₂Cr₂O₇, magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition. The latter method was used in the current work to deposit Cr₂O₃ thin films with thicknesses from 28 to 400 nm at deposition temperatures from 330 to 465 °C. The phase composition, crystallite size, hardness and modulus of elasticity were measured. The deposited Cr₂O₃ thin films had different structures from X-ray amorphous to crystalline α-Cr₂O₃ (eskolaite) structures. The averaged hardness of the films on SiO₂ glass substrate varied from 12 to 22 GPa and the moduli were in the range of 76–180 GPa, as determined by nanoindentation. Lower values included some influence from a softer deposition substrate. The results indicate that Cr₂O₃ could be a promising material as a mechanically protective thin film applicable, for instance, in micro-electromechanical devices.

Nanolaminates of ZrO2 and HfO2 were grown by atomic layer deposition, using metal halides and water as precursors, on silicon and fused quartz substrates at 300 °C. The crystalline phase composition, optical refraction, and mechanical performance of the multilayers were influenced by the relative contents of the constituent metal oxides. The crystal growth in as-deposited HfO2 dominantly led to the monoclinic phase, whereas ZrO2 was partially crystallized as its metastable and hard tetragonal polymorph. The hardness and elasticity of the nanolaminate structures could be modified by varying the amounts of either oxide contributing to the crystallographic order formed in the solid films. The refractive indexes depended on the nanolaminate structure.

Cr₂O₃ thin films were grown on a Si (1 0 0) substrate using Cr(thd)₃ and O₃ by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at substrate temperatures (T_G) from 200 to 300 °C. X-ray amorphous films were deposited at a T_G ≤ 225 °C, whereas at higher temperatures (T_G ≥ 250 °C), the eskolaite phase was observed in the films. The growth rate of the films increased from 0.003 to 0.01 nm/cycle by increasing T_G from 200 to 275 °C. The relatively low growth rate of Cr(thd)₃—O₃ makes it appropriate for the ALD of precisely controllable solid solution-type ternary-component thin films. The Ti-doped Cr₂O₃ film showed higher hardness (16.7 GPa) compared with that of the undoped film (12.8 GPa) with similar thickness. The band gap values of the pure Cr₂O₃ corresponding to the indirect transition model showed no dependence on T_G; however, doping the Cr₂O₃ with Ti decreased its band gap energy value from 3.1 to 2.2 eV.

In atomic layer deposited Ru-doped α-Fe₂O₃ thin films superparamagnetic behaviour of nanocrystallites is observed with the magnetic coercive force up to 3 kOe.

SiO2-Fe2O3 mixture films and nanolaminates were grown by atomic layer deposition from iron trichloride, hexakis(ethylamino)disilane, and ozone at 300 °C. Orthorhombic ɛ-Fe2O3 was identified in Fe2O3 reference films and in Fe2O3 layers grown to certain thicknesses between amorphous SiO2 layers. SiO2-Fe2O3 films could be magnetized in external fields, exhibiting saturation and hysteresis in nonlinear magnetization-field curves. Electrical resistive switching, markedly dependent on the ratio of the component oxides, was also observed in films with proper composition. For relatively conductive films, application of small signal measurements allowed one to record memory maps with notable squareness and defined distinction between high and low conductance states.