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Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications
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Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 17921

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mitsunobu Sato

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Physics, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University of Technology and Engineering, Tokyo, Japan
Interests: functional thin films; thin film devices; chemical process for thin film fabrication
Dr. Hiroki Nagai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Physics, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University of Technology and Engineering, Tokyo, Japan
Interests: thin film and surface interface physical properties; functional materials/device
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A sustainable society requires innovative technology where many disciplines interact. Highly functionalized thin films in various devices, such as computers, which were developed mainly for the semiconductor industry in the last century, are now widely used in various fields of our daily life. For example, the touch panel in a mobile phone uses a transparent conductive thin film and an anti-reflection one on the glass substrate. Thus, many products with various thin films make life more comfortable with reduced materials and energy consumption. Many different methods are used to fabricate such thin films, including physical vapor deposition (PVD) such as laser ablation, molecular beam epitaxy, sputtering, as well as chemical processes. Thin film fabrication by chemical processes can usually be achieved in a relatively cheap way compared to PVD methods. The chemical processes are important techniques to prepare thin films and ceramic coatings now and in the future.

This Special Issue of Coatings on “Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication, and Applications” is intended to cover the most recent and promising advances in functional thin films using the chemical process.

This Special issue of Coatings will encompass the following main topics:

  • Synthesis and characterization: New concepts and techniques for thin film fabrication, modification, processing, and characterization;
  • Mechanics of thin films: Mechanical properties of thin films, including hardening and protecting coats;
  • Electronics, optics, and optoelectronics: Thin films that are used in electronic, optical, and optoelectronic applications;
  • Magnetics: Thin films that are used in magnetic and magneto-optic applications;
  • Energy materials: Thin films that are used in energy materials including photocatalytic application;
  • Thin film devices: Fabrication, processing, and properties of thin film devices.

Prof. Dr. Mitsunobu Sato
Dr. Hiroki Nagai
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.

Keywords

  • Functional thin films
  • Thin film devices
  • Chemical process

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 7686 KiB  
Article
Hydrophilic Titania Thin Films from a Molecular Precursor Film Formed via Electrospray Deposition on a Quartz Glass Substrate Precoated with Carbon Nanotubes
by Natangue Heita Shafudah, Hiroki Nagai, Yutaka Suwazono, Ryuhei Ozawa, Yukihiro Kudoh, Taiju Takahashi, Takeyoshi Onuma and Mitsunobu Sato
Coatings 2020, 10(11), 1050; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10111050 - 29 Oct 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2464
Abstract
Titania precursor films were electrosprayed on a quartz glass substrate, which was pre-modified with an ultra-thin film obtained by spin-coating a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) dispersed solution. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the thin films obtained by heat-treating the precursor films at 500 [...] Read more.
Titania precursor films were electrosprayed on a quartz glass substrate, which was pre-modified with an ultra-thin film obtained by spin-coating a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) dispersed solution. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the thin films obtained by heat-treating the precursor films at 500 °C in air for 1 h indicated that the formed crystals were anatase. A new route to fabricate transparent thin films on the insulating substrate via electrospray deposition (ESD) was thus attained. The photoluminescence spectrum of the thin film showed a peak at 2.23 eV, assignable to the self-trapped exciton of anatase. The Raman spectrum of the thin film demonstrated that heat treatment is useful for removing SWCNTs. The thin film showed a water contact angle of 14 ± 2° even after being kept under dark conditions for 1 h, indicating a high level of hydrophilicity. Additionally, the thin film had a super-hydrophilic surface with a water contact angle of 1 ± 1° after ultraviolet light irradiation with an intensity of 4.5 mW cm−2 at 365 nm for 1 h. The importance of Ti3+ ions in the co-present amorphous phase, which was dominantly formed via the ESD process, for hydrophilicity was also clarified by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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11 pages, 3322 KiB  
Article
Superstrate Structured FTO/TiO2/In2S3/Cu2ZnSnS4 Solar Cells Fabricated by a Spray Method with Aqueous Solutions
by Dongho Lee and JungYup Yang
Coatings 2020, 10(6), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10060548 - 7 Jun 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3304
Abstract
Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (C2ZTS4) solar cells have become a fascinating research topic due to several advantages of the C2ZTS4 absorber layer, such as having non-toxic and abundantly available components. Superstrate structured C2ZTS4 [...] Read more.
Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (C2ZTS4) solar cells have become a fascinating research topic due to several advantages of the C2ZTS4 absorber layer, such as having non-toxic and abundantly available components. Superstrate structured C2ZTS4 solar cells were fabricated on the top of a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate with a spray pyrolysis method from the window layer to the absorber layer. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and indium sulfide (In2S3) were used as the window and buffer layer, respectively. The source materials for the C2ZTS4 and buffer layers were all aqueous-based solutions. The metallic component ratio, Cu/(Zn + Sn), and the sulfur concentration in the solutions were systematically investigated. The optimum ratio of Cu/(Zn + Sn) in the film is about 0.785, while 0.18 M thiourea in the solution is the best condition for high performance. The C2ZTS4 layers deposited at lower temperatures (<360 °C) yielded a low quality resulting in low current density (JSC). On the other hand, the C2ZTS4 layers deposited at high temperature (~400 °C) showed a low fill factor (FF) without degradation of the open-circuit voltage (VOC) and JSC due to the junction degradation and high contact resistance between the absorber layer and metal contact. The best cell efficiency, VOC, JSC, and fill factor achieved were 3.34%, 383 mV, 24.6 mA/cm2, and 37.7%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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15 pages, 12609 KiB  
Article
Luminescence of CsI and CsI:Na Films under LED and X-ray Excitation
by Jin-Cherng Hsu and Yu-Shen Ma
Coatings 2019, 9(11), 751; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings9110751 - 13 Nov 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4450
Abstract
In this study, we investigated the luminous properties of undoped cesium iodide (CsI) and Na-doped CsI (CsI:Na) films deposited by thermal vacuum evaporation and treated with different substrate temperatures, post-annealing temperatures, and deposition rates. The quality of the deposited films was evaluated by [...] Read more.
In this study, we investigated the luminous properties of undoped cesium iodide (CsI) and Na-doped CsI (CsI:Na) films deposited by thermal vacuum evaporation and treated with different substrate temperatures, post-annealing temperatures, and deposition rates. The quality of the deposited films was evaluated by their XRD pattern, SEM cross-section/surface morphologies and UV/X-ray luminescence, the spectra of which were used to derive the luminescence mechanism of the deposited films. The 310 nm luminescence demonstrates that the exciting light arises from the electron–hole recombination through the self-trapped exciton (STE) process, which is characteristic of the host polycrystalline CsI. The broad-band luminescence from ~400 to 450 nm demonstrates the other electron–hole recombination between the new energy states created by doping Na in the forbidden gap of CsI. When we deposited higher quality films at a substrate temperature of 200 °C, the undoped CsI films showed preferred crystal orientation at (200), and the CsI:Na films co-evaporated by 1 wt.% NaI at (310) and had the highest UV/X-ray luminescence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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9 pages, 1577 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Gas-Sensitive Properties of Thin-Film Thermovoltaic Sensor Elements Based on Zinc Oxide
by Igor Pronin, Nadejda Yakushova, Igor Averin, Andrey Karmanov, Vyacheslav Moshnikov and Dimitre Dimitrov
Coatings 2019, 9(11), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings9110693 - 24 Oct 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2104
Abstract
Systematic research on a new type of gas sensor devices based on the thermovoltaic effect in zinc oxide, inhomogeneously doped with impurities of variable valence, is presented in the article. The ZnO–ZnO–Me two-layer sandwich structure, in which the thermovoltaic effect is observed, is [...] Read more.
Systematic research on a new type of gas sensor devices based on the thermovoltaic effect in zinc oxide, inhomogeneously doped with impurities of variable valence, is presented in the article. The ZnO–ZnO–Me two-layer sandwich structure, in which the thermovoltaic effect is observed, is synthesized using sol–gel technology from sols by dissolving the inorganic zinc salt in alcohol and adding a surfactant, followed by the mixing and maturation of the sol. The lower layer of the nanostructure is formed from pure zinc oxide by immersing the substrate at ⅔ length in sol and drying. The upper layer of zinc oxide doped with copper or iron is formed by two or three immersions of the other end of the substrate by ⅔ length, followed by drying and annealing. It has been established that, based on the developed sensor device, it is possible to obtain an increased response to gas-analyzers (ethanol being an example). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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15 pages, 5955 KiB  
Article
The Role of Substrate Temperature and Magnetic Filtering for DLC by Cathodic Arc Evaporation
by Helge Lux, Matthias Edling, Massimiliano Lucci, Julia Kitzmann, Claus Villringer, Peter Siemroth, Fabio De Matteis and Sigurd Schrader
Coatings 2019, 9(5), 345; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings9050345 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4866
Abstract
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were deposited using two different types of high current arc evaporation. The first process used a magnetic particle filter to remove droplets from the plasma. For the second process, the samples were put into a metallic cage which was [...] Read more.
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were deposited using two different types of high current arc evaporation. The first process used a magnetic particle filter to remove droplets from the plasma. For the second process, the samples were put into a metallic cage which was placed directly above the plasma source. For both processes, we varied the substrate temperature from 21 to 350 °C in order to investigate the temperature effect. The samples were characterized using SEM, AFM, XPS, Raman Spectroscopy, Ellipsometry, Photometry, and Nano Indentation in order to compare both methods of deposition and provide a careful characterization of such DLC films. We found that the sp3 content and the hardness can be precisely adjusted by changing the substrate temperature. Furthermore, in the case of unfiltered deposition, the optical constants can be shifted in the direction of higher absorbance in order to produce black and hard carbon coatings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Thin Films: Design, Fabrication and Applications)
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