Thin Films: Deposition, Growth and Characterization Techniques

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanofabrication and Nanomanufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 7475

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Hanbat National University (HNU), Yusong, Daejeon 302-719, Korea
Interests: material characterization; nanomaterials thin film nanotechnology; material characteristics; thin films deposition; nanostructured materials; chemical vapor deposition; functional materials; transmission electron microscopy (TEM) thin film processing; films; pulsed laser deposition; RF sputtering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Solid thin film technology plays an important role as a key elemental technology for producing various devices, including energy-generating systems, biological and environmental sensing devices, integrated electronic and magnetic devices, or optical and plasmonic devices. The current breakthroughs in device technologies demand more advanced thin film technologies in micro- or nano-scales.

With its basis on material science, thin film technology encompasses a fairly wide range of topics within engineering. Its common topics consist of the functionality of thin film as compared to bulk, the morphological and microstructural changes in thin film surfaces and in the interface with its adjacent material according to material types and processing conditions, the instability of thin films due to its high surface-to-volume ratio, and the formation of new intermediate layers through the reactions of thin films to substrates or other adjacent materials. In-depth research on these subjects will greatly inspire the creation of new hierarchical devices. 

In this Special Issue, we encourage submissions on novel deposition and material processing of thin films on hard or flexible substrates, technologies applying thin films to devices, and innovative uses of thin films through material selection and processing. We also welcome experimental, theoretical or phenomenological studies on the formation, growth, and instability of thin films, thin film crystallography, the interfacial phenomena between thin films and substrates, and characterization of various properties of thin films in devices.

It is my pleasure to invite your contribution to this Special Issue.

Prof. Yong-Jun Oh
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Fabrication of thin film and nanostructured materials
  • Application of thin film for devices
  • Optical, electrical or other functional properties of thin film
  • Surface or interfacial behavior
  • Thin film crystallography or epitaxy
  • Thin film characterization

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 4095 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Ethanol on Abnormal Grain Growth in Copper Foils
by Zhancheng Li, Yongna Zhang, Yinwu Duan, Deping Huang and Haofei Shi
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(11), 3069; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11113069 - 15 Nov 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2771
Abstract
Single-crystal Cu not only has high electrical and thermal conductivity, but can also be used as a promising platform for the epitaxial growth of two-dimensional materials. Preparing large-area single-crystal Cu foils from polycrystalline foils has emerged as the most promising technique in terms [...] Read more.
Single-crystal Cu not only has high electrical and thermal conductivity, but can also be used as a promising platform for the epitaxial growth of two-dimensional materials. Preparing large-area single-crystal Cu foils from polycrystalline foils has emerged as the most promising technique in terms of its simplicity and effectiveness. However, the studies on transforming polycrystalline foil into large-area single-crystal foil mainly focus on the influence of annealing temperature and strain energy on the recrystallization process of copper foil, while studies on the effect of annealing atmosphere on abnormal grain growth behavior are relatively rare. It is necessary to carry out more studies on the effect of annealing atmosphere on grain growth behavior to understand the recrystallization mechanism of metal. Here, we found that introduction of ethanol in pure argon annealing atmosphere will cause the abnormal grain growth of copper foil. Moreover, the number of abnormally grown grains can be controlled by the concentration of ethanol in the annealing atmosphere. Using this technology, the number of abnormally grown grains on the copper foil can be controlled to single one. This abnormally grown grain will grow rapidly to decimeter-size by consuming the surrounding small grains. This work provides a new perspective for the understanding of the recrystallization of metals, and a new method for the preparation of large-area single-crystal copper foils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Films: Deposition, Growth and Characterization Techniques)
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20 pages, 4951 KiB  
Article
Preparation of High-Performance Metal-Free UV/Near Infrared-Shielding Films for Human Skin Protection
by Chih-Hao Liang and Ying-Jung Chen
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(8), 1954; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11081954 - 29 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3645
Abstract
A series of metal-free UV/near infrared (NIR)-shielding coatings are successfully fabricated by shielded cathodic arc plasma evaporation (CAPE) and substrate-biased RF magnetron sputtering processes. The UV/NIR-shielding coatings comprising quarter-wave stacks of TiO2/SiO2 multilayers and high-conductivity sputter-deposited ITO films with a [...] Read more.
A series of metal-free UV/near infrared (NIR)-shielding coatings are successfully fabricated by shielded cathodic arc plasma evaporation (CAPE) and substrate-biased RF magnetron sputtering processes. The UV/NIR-shielding coatings comprising quarter-wave stacks of TiO2/SiO2 multilayers and high-conductivity sputter-deposited ITO films with a thickness in the range of 200–600 nm could block IRA and IRB radiations, respectively. The total thicknesses of UV/near infrared-shielding films are in the range from 375 nm to 1513.8 nm. The anatase-phase TiO2 films with absorption edge located at ∼375 nm were deposited by shielded CAPE at ∼100 °C. Further, the well-crystallized ITO films were found to have high free-electron concentrations (1.12 × 1021 cm−3), resulting in strong absorption of IRB due to the plasmon resonance absorption. The optimal optical design and ITO film thickness were investigated, and the TiO2(SiO2/TiO2)3 multilayer combined with an ITO film thickness of 400 nm was found to provide a high NIR-shielding rate of 94.8%, UVB to UVA-shielding rate of 92.7%, and average visible light transmittance of 68.1%. Further, human skin cells protected by a UV/NIR-shielding coating showed significantly decreased reactive oxygen species generation and inflammatory cytokine expression as compared to those of unprotected cells. The results demonstrate that the development of multifunction coatings have potential for transparent heat insulation windows and human skin protection against UV/IR radiations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Films: Deposition, Growth and Characterization Techniques)
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