Nanostructured Thin Films: Deposition Methods, Properties and Applications

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanocomposite Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 June 2024) | Viewed by 1274

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio, CSIC C/kelsen 5, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Interests: thin films; surface; nanostructures; interface; surface plasmon resonance; Raman spectroscopy; X-ray absorption spectroscopy; solid-state dewetting; cold sintering process; ceramics; interaction effects
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio, CSIC C/kelsen 5, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Interests: sol-gel synthesis; pulsed laser deposition; nanoparticles; thin films; magnetic materials; microwave absorption; X-ray diffraction; confocal Raman microscopy; iron oxides; carbides

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to invite you to contribute your original research to this Special Issue focused on the deposition, properties, and applications of nanostructured thin films. Nowadays, nanostructured thin films are widely utilized for many purposes in a variety of fields, particularly focused on future technologies. Their fabrication via several methods, crystalline character, compositional phases, thickness from nanometers to micrometers, and their nanostructuration possibilities provide systems with a multitude of specific properties to be studied and employed in many applications. In addition, their research field is extensive, covering optics, electronics, catalytic systems, energy and biomaterials, among others.

This Special Issue, entitled “Nanostructured Thin Films: Deposition Methods, Properties and Applications”, aims to share recent achievements in the field, with special attention paid to the relationship between advanced preparation, properties, physical characteristics, and applications.

Studies involving traditional and novel methodologies for the preparation of nanostructured thin films, their properties and characteristics, including the use of advanced techniques such as Raman microscopy and synchrotron radiation-based techniques for the study of systems, as well as the use of computer modeling and simulations to predict the properties and mechanisms and applications of films, are very welcome.

Dr. Aida Serrano
Dr. Jesús López-Sánchez
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanostructuration
  • surface functionalization
  • synchrotron radiation
  • mechanisms and models
  • magnetism
  • surface plasmon
  • coatings

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 6994 KiB  
Article
Tailoring the Lithium Concentration in Thin Lithium Ferrite Films Obtained by Dual Ion Beam Sputtering
by Pilar Prieto, Cayetano Hernández-Gómez, Sara Román-Sánchez, Marina París-Ogáyar, Giulio Gorni, José Emilio Prieto and Aida Serrano
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(14), 1220; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14141220 - 18 Jul 2024
Viewed by 914
Abstract
Thin films of lithium spinel ferrite, LiFe5O8, have attracted much scientific attention because of their potential for efficient excitation, the manipulation and propagation of spin currents due to their insulating character, high-saturation magnetization, and Curie temperature, as well as [...] Read more.
Thin films of lithium spinel ferrite, LiFe5O8, have attracted much scientific attention because of their potential for efficient excitation, the manipulation and propagation of spin currents due to their insulating character, high-saturation magnetization, and Curie temperature, as well as their ultra-low damping value. In addition, LiFe5O8 is currently one of the most interesting materials in terms of developing spintronic devices based on the ionic control of magnetism, for which it is crucial to control the lithium’s atomic content. In this work, we demonstrate that dual ion beam sputtering is a suitable technique to tailor the lithium content of thin films of lithium ferrite (LFO) by using the different energies of the assisting ion beam formed by Ar+ and O2+ ions during the growth process. Without assistance, a disordered rock-salt LFO phase (i.e., LiFeO2) can be identified as the principal phase. Under beam assistance, highly out-of-plane-oriented (111) thin LFO films have been obtained on (0001) Al2O3 substrates with a disordered spinel structure as the main phase and with lithium concentrations higher and lower than the stoichiometric spinel phase, i.e., LiFe5O8. After post-annealing of the films at 1025 K, a highly ordered ferromagnetic spinel LFO phase was found when the lithium concentration was higher than the stoichiometric value. With lower lithium contents, the antiferromagnetic hematite (α-Fe2O3) phase emerged and coexisted in films with the ferromagnetic LixFe6-xO8. These results open up the possibility of controlling the properties of thin lithium ferrite-based films to enable their use in advanced spintronic devices. Full article
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