[en] Nanocrystalline cubic boron nitride and boron carbide films have been synthesized using sputtering. The relationship between the structures and properties as well as the influence of the deposition parameters, such as rf power, bias voltage, substrate temperature, composition and flow rate of the sputtering gas, on the structures and properties have been studied. The influence of the ion bombardment could be described by the specific ion momentum P*=[ion momentum.(ion flux/atom flux)]. The specific ion momentum was found to be proportional to the rf power and to the 1.5th power of the bias voltage. Two phases have been identified in our boron nitride films: hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and cubic boron nitride (c-BN); the films were either single phase or contained a mixture of these two phases. Nanocrystalline boron films have been grown with a deposition rate of 2 nm/s not only on Si but also on hard metal (WC-6%Co) substrates. Stoichiometric and crystalline films have already been grown at room temperature (about 0.1 T_m, T_m=melting point-3900 K). All the films contained about 8 at% carbon and 6 at% oxygen as impurities, which come mainly from the targt. The concentration of the impurities is independent of the deposition paramters. The growth of c-BN appears after the specific ion momentum larger than a threshold value, which is dependent on the substrate temperature, composition and on the flow rate of the sputtering gas. The volume content of c-BN runs through a maximum value with increasing specific ion momentum. (orig.)