Metastable, nanocrystalline, ternary chromium aluminum nitride thin films have been deposited by reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering of a chromium aluminum nitride target in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. The film constitution has been examined by X-ray microanalysis, X-ray reflectivity, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy. The mechanical properties such as Vickers hardness, elastic modulus and internal stress have been determined as a function of ion energy of bombarding particles during film growth. It was possible to show that the dependence of these properties on ion energy can be described by two physical mechanisms, both subsurface nitrogen ion implantation and nitrogen ion bombardment induced relaxation processes, whereas chemical composition is not affected in the case of our reactive deposition conditions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.