Functional Thin Films: Growth, Characterization, and Applications
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2026 | Viewed by 744
Special Issue Editors
2. Łukasiewicz Research Network–PORT Polish Center for Technology Development, 54-066 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: thin-films; surface science; 2D materials; PVD; MBE
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: GaN-based materials; van der Waals crystals; MXene; photoelectron spectroscopies; epitaxy; atomic force microscopy; hall effect measurements
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Functional, as well as functionalized, thin films represent one of the most dynamic areas of modern materials science. By enabling the precise tailoring of electronic, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and chemical properties, they open pathways to highly specialized applications. These films are increasingly utilized in energy harvesting and storage, catalysis, sensors, protective coatings, biomedical devices, advanced optoelectronics, and more.
The development of such thin films requires not only novel material design, fabrication strategies, and deposition methods tailored to the film type, but also advanced characterization techniques to understand their structure–property relationships.
The objective of this Special Issue is to collect high-quality research and review articles focusing on the design, fabrication, deposition, characterization, and application of functionalized thin films.
Contributions may address, but are not limited to:
- Functional and functionalized films of various material types with different electronic conductivity, including metals, semiconductors, insulators, and others;
- Two-dimensional layered materials, MXenes, polymers, and hybrid thin films;
- Deposition of 2D and 3D layers;
- Novel deposition and functionalization techniques;
- Surface functionalization and interface engineering;
- Computational approaches for predicting thin film and heterostructure properties;
- Thin films and devices for applications in energy conversion and storage, sensing, catalysis, and biomedicine.
We warmly invite you to contribute to this Special Issue and share your latest research results with the broader community working on functional thin film materials.
Dr. Miłosz Grodzicki
Dr. Dominika Majchrzak
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. Crystals 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 2100 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 and functionalized thin films
- thin film growth and fabrication
- 2D materials and layered structures
- thin film characterization techniques
- modeling and simulations of thin films
- surface modification and interface engineering
- functional thin films for catalysis, electronics, optics, sensors, coatings, biotechnology, medicine and micromechanical applications
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