Laser Technologies: Laser Deposition Thin Films and Coatings Formation

Dear Colleagues,  

This Special Issue invites submissions on the use of laser technologies in the production of coatings and thin films for various fields of science and technology. Of particular interest are coatings for extreme conditions and functional thin film materials used as key elements of technological progress in the production of optical, electronic, photonic and optoelectronic devices. Articles on the integration of films with electronic (optoelectronic) circuits and other advanced electronic technologies and their use in industrial devices are also welcome. Applications of thin-film materials include: semiconductor devices, wireless devices, telecommunications, integrated circuits, solar cells and computer chips. These, in turn, include, among others, hard carbide, nitride and carbonitride coatings, films for various types of sensors, catalysts and energy storage devices; the use of coatings for biomedical applications is of considerable interest. The current issues include modeling and/or theoretical studies devoted to the physical problems of laser–matter interaction and the growth mechanisms of thin films, leading to innovative applications.

The thin-film materials on which this special issue focuses are thin films of metals, structured composites, conductive thin films of metal oxides, semiconductor thin films, organic semiconductors, amorphous carbon films, nanostructured materials and other similar materials obtained using laser technologies. These include, in particular, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE—an additional deposition method derived from PLD), Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition (LCVD) and Laser Vaporization and Deposition (LVD).

This Special Issue is devoted to the latest achievements and further challenges of PLD, MAPLE, LCVD and LVD applied to, but not limited to, these. In general, the topics of interest include the following:

• Laser and laser-assisted coating technologies. Scientific aspects of laser deposition and processing of thin films; pulsed laser deposition; physicochemical and technological mechanisms of ablation of materials by laser beams, growth and crystallization of atomic layers of thin films, nucleation and other processes during the growth and laser processing of thin films; formation of crystal structures during the growth of metal and composite films, intermetallic compounds; expected and real structure of single-crystal films; classification of cluster morphologists.
• Application of laser technologies to obtain coatings of superhard and anti-corrosion materials; thin-film structures for optical, photovoltaic and thermoelectric devices; films of topological insulators and complex structures; carbon-based films: nanotubes and graphene; thin film coatings for biomedicine and bioelectronic devices.
• Identification of the characteristics of coatings and thin films obtained using laser technologies by electrical, thermal, spectroscopic, optical, mechanical, X-ray and electron microscopic methods; photocurrent spectroscopy, low-frequency noise spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy of thin and ultrathin films.

Prof. Dr. Ihor S. Virt
Dr. Piotr Potera
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.

• laser technologies
• pulsed laser deposition
• thin film growth mechanisms
• thin films and film coatings
• thin film structures
• optical, electronic, optoelectronic, photovoltaic and thermoelectric structures