Optical Properties of Crystals and Thin Films

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that submissions to the upcoming Special Issue of Coatings, entitled "Optical Properties of Crystals and Thin Films", are now being accepted.

The optical properties of crystals and layers provide rich information on such diverse aspects of their physical properties as their electronic and vibrational states and the existence and nature of defects and impurities. In the particular case of layers, some optical techniques provide information about their structure and quality (layer thicknesses, etc.). The optical properties of crystals and thin layers are also especially important from the point of view of their practical applications (active media of solid-state lasers, optical materials, active layers, etc.). The optical properties of materials may be influenced by a number of external factors, such as temperature, ionizing radiation and others. The study of the influence of these factors on the optical properties of crystals and thin layers allows the determination of many interesting properties of these materials. For example, irradiation of laser crystals with ionizing radiation leads to increased absorption and degradation of generation characteristics. Heating the irradiated crystals under appropriate conditions (time, temperature, atmosphere) usually leads to an improvement in their generation parameters and a decrease in their absorption.

In particular, the topics of interest in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• optical spectroscopy of crystals and thin films (e.g., transmission, absorption, reflection);
• determination of the optical band gap energy and Urbach tail of crystals and layers;
• the use of Swanepoel's method for determining the refractive index and thickness of thin layers;
• luminescence of crystals (mainly photoluminescence and thermoluminescence);
• effects of external influences (irradiation, thermal treatment, etc.) on the optical properties of crystals and layers;
• optical properties of thin films for various applications (in solar cells, in light-emitting devices, etc.);
• optical properties of laser crystals.

Dr. Piotr Potera
Guest Editor

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.