TiB2 layers and manufacture thereof

A method for coating at least one work piece having a layer containing TiB2 with the following steps:

• placing a work piece that is to be coated into a coating chamber;
• depositing the layer containing TiB2 onto the work piece using a nonreactive high power magnetron sputtering process using no pulse generator in an atmosphere containing a working gas by acting on TiB2 targets, wherein at least two TiB2 targets are acted on with a constantly high power of output of greater than 20 kW from a DC power source, such that a power density results in a current density at each of the at least two TiB2 targets of locally greater than 0.2 A/cm2, with the at least two TiB2 targets processing a power of no greater than 10 kW, averaged over time,
• wherein the nonreactive high power magnetron sputtering process has at first only a first TiB2 target of the at least two TiB2 targets acted on with full power through outputs of the DC power source and thus with a high power density, then a second TiB2 target of the at least two TiB2 targets is connected to outputs of the DC power source, wherein an impedance of the second TiB2 target is higher than an impedance of the first TiB2 target, then the first TiB2 target is disconnected from the outputs of the DC power source, so that power output occurs essentially via the second TiB2 target,
• wherein a roughness of the layer containing TiB2 is influenced by increasing a partial pressure of the working gas to at least 0.2 Pa during the nonreactive high power magnetron sputtering process to decrease the roughness of the layer containing TiB2, and
• wherein the layer containing TiB2 has a texture that produces significant peaks in the XRD spectrum, which display a pronounced (001)-orientation.