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Advanced Strategies in Thin Film Engineering by Physical Vapor Deposition...
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Advanced Strategies in Thin Film Engineering by Physical Vapor Deposition Techniques

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Thin Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 2667

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Alberto Palmero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Spanish Council of Research (CSIC), Institute of Materials Science of Seville (CSIC/US), Américo Vespucio 49, 41092 Seville, Spain
Interests: thin film growth; atomistic processes; porous thin films; oblique angle deposition; magnetron sputtering; physical vapor deposition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rafael Alvarez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Fı́sica Aplicada I, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Sevilla, c/ Virgen de África, 7, 41011 Seville, Spain
Interests: thin film growth; atomistic processes; Monte Carlo growth model; oblique angle deposition; physical vapor deposition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have witnessed the flourishing of numerous novel strategies based on classical physical vapor deposition techniques, such as magnetron sputtering, pulsed laser deposition, evaporation, etc., aimed at the advanced engineering of thin films. At the forefront of these approaches, investigations focused on nanostructured coatings appear today as one of the priorities in many scientific and technological communities. The science behind them appears in most cases as a “terra incognita”, fascinating both the fundamentalist, who imagines new concepts, and the experimentalist, who is able to create and study new films with as of yet unprecedented performances. These scientific and technological challenges, along with the existence of numerous scientific issues that have yet to be clarified in classical physical vapor depositions (e.g., process control and stability, nanostructuration mechanisms, connection between film morphology and properties or upscaling procedures from the laboratory to industrial scales) have motivated us to edit a specialized volume containing the state of the art of these innovative fundamental and applied research topics. These include but are not limited to:

  • Nanostructure-related properties;
  • Atomistic processes during film growth;
  • Process control, process stability, and in situ diagnostics;
  • Fundamentals and applications;
  • Thin film nanostructuration phenomena;
  • Tribological, anticorrosion, and mechanical properties;
  • Combined and hybrid procedures;
  • Industrial applications;
  • Devices.

Prof. Dr. Alberto Palmero
Dr. Rafael Alvarez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5283 KiB  
Article
Tantalum Oxide Thin Films Sputter-Deposited by Oxygen Gas Pulsing
by Nicolas Martin, Jean-Marc Cote, Joseph Gavoille and Valérie Potin
Coatings 2023, 13(11), 1932; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13111932 - 12 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1065
Abstract
Tantalum oxide thin films are deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering from a tantalum metallic target and argon + oxygen. The oxygen gas is pulsed during the deposition with a constant pulsing period T = 10 s, whereas the introduction time of the [...] Read more.
Tantalum oxide thin films are deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering from a tantalum metallic target and argon + oxygen. The oxygen gas is pulsed during the deposition with a constant pulsing period T = 10 s, whereas the introduction time of the reactive gas, namely the tON injection time, is systematically changed from 0 to 100% of T. Therefore, composition of as-deposited TaOx films is continuously changed from pure metallic tantalum to the over-stoichiometric Ta2O5 material. Films adopt the body-centered cubic structure (metallic Ta) for the lowest tON injection time values (oxygen stoichiometry x < 1.0) and become amorphous for the longest ones. It is shown that the tON injection time is a key parameter to deposit either homogeneous tantalum oxides, or periodic Ta/TaOx multilayers with alternations close to 3 nm. Optical transmittance in the visible region of the film/glass substrate system and electrical conductivity vs. temperature both exhibit a gradual evolution from metallic (σ300K = 8.17 × 105 S m−1 with an opaque behavior) to semiconducting (σ300K = 1.97 × 103 S m−1 with a semi-transparent transmittance) and finally to dielectric properties (σ300K < 10−5 S m−1 for interferential films) as a function of the oxygen concentration in the films. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Strategies in Thin Film Engineering by Physical Vapor Deposition Techniques)
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15 pages, 5212 KiB  
Article
Structure and Void Connectivity in Nanocolumnar Thin Films Grown by Magnetron Sputtering at Oblique Angles
by Rafael Alvarez, Guillermo Regodon, Hiedra Acosta-Rivera, Victor Rico, German Alcala, Agustín R. González-Elipe and Alberto Palmero
Coatings 2023, 13(6), 991; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13060991 - 26 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1249
Abstract
The morphology and void connectivity of thin films grown by a magnetron sputtering deposition technique at oblique geometries were studied in this paper. A well-tested thin film growth model was employed to assess the features of these layers along with experimental data taken [...] Read more.
The morphology and void connectivity of thin films grown by a magnetron sputtering deposition technique at oblique geometries were studied in this paper. A well-tested thin film growth model was employed to assess the features of these layers along with experimental data taken from the literature. A strong variation in the film morphology and pore topology was found as a function of the growth conditions, which have been linked to the different collisional transport of sputtered species in the plasma gas. Four different characteristic film morphologies were identified, such as (i) highly dense and compact, (ii) compact with large, tilted mesopores, (iii) nanocolumns separated by large mesopores, and (iv) vertically aligned sponge-like coalescent nanostructures. Attending to the topology and connectivity of the voids in the film, the nanocolumnar morphology was shown to present a high pore volume and area connected with the outside by means of mesopores, with a diameter above 2 nm, while the sponge-like nanostructure presented a high pore volume and area, as well as a dense network connectivity by means of micropores, with a diameter below 2 nm. The obtained results describe the different features of the porous network in these films and explain the different performances as gas or liquid sensors in electrochromic applications or for infiltration with nanoparticles or large molecules. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Strategies in Thin Film Engineering by Physical Vapor Deposition Techniques)
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