Three means are investigated for further increasing the accuracy of the characterization of a thin film on a substrate, from the transmittance spectrum T(λ) of the specimen, based on the envelope method. Firstly, it is demonstrated that the accuracy...
Thin-film strain sensors are widely used because of their small volume, fast strain response and high measurement accuracy. Among them, the thin-film material and preparation process of thin-film strain sensors for force measurement are important asp...
Thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules often suffer from a variety of parasitic resistive losses in transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and absorber layers that significantly affect the module electrical performance. This paper presents the holistic inve...
Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes have been widely investigated for water treatment applications due to their promising performance in terms of flux, salt rejection, and their antifouling properties. This review article provides an overview of...
In this paper, the previously proposed shaft-loaded blister test technique for the synchronous characterization of the surface and interface mechanical properties of a thin-film/substrate system is further studied theoretically. The large deflection...
OEMT is an existing optimizing envelope method for thin-film characterization that uses only one transmittance spectrum, T(λ), of the film deposited on the substrate. OEMT computes the optimized values of the average thickness,
In this study, based on the pressure blister test technique, a theoretical study on the synchronous characterization of surface and interfacial mechanical properties of thin-film/substrate systems with residual stress was presented, where the problem...
In this study, a novel approach for characterizing the optical properties of inhomogeneous thin films is presented, with a particular focus on samples exhibiting absorption in some part of the measured spectral range. Conventional methods of measurin...
The proliferation of laser technologies has profoundly increased the demand for high-quality optical thin films whose physical properties are tunable and well defined. Such films are frequently deposited in thicknesses much shorter than the wavelengt...
A novel, high throughput method to characterize the chemistry of ultra-thin diamond-like carbon films is discussed. The method uses surface sensitive SEM/EDX to provide substrate-specific, semi-quantitative silicon nitride/DLC stack composition of pr...
Zirconium (Zr) thin films were deposited on silicon using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with two laser wavelengths (1064 nm and 532 nm) and varying substrate temperatures (25 °C, 300 °C, and 500 °C) and laser fluences (0.25, 0.5, 1.0 J/cm...
The elastic property of the film-substrate interface of thin-film systems is characterized with an opto-acoustic method. The thin-film specimens are oscillated with an acoustic transducer at audible frequencies, and the resultant harmonic response of...
Composite thin films of the AlN–Al–V type, grown by magnetron sputtering, were analyzed by several complementary diagnostic methods. The power of the magnetron was used as a variable parameter, while gas flows, chamber pressure, and subst...
This work investigates the design, simulation, and characterization of thin-film platinum resistive heaters fabricated by magnetron sputtering. Finite element simulations were performed in COMSOL Multiphysics to analyze heat generation and temperatur...
A microwave characterization at UHF band of a ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitors for varactor applications has been performed. By using an impedance reflectivity method, a complex dielectric permittivity...
In most amorphous materials, the concentration of Urbach tail states is larger than the concentration of dangling bond states. However, absorption accounting for the Urbach tail while disregarding the dangling bonds is commonly used or derived by spe...
In this work, we systematically studied the deposition, characterization, and crystal structure modeling of ScAlN thin film. Measurements of the piezoelectric device’s relevant material properties, such as crystal structure, crystallographic orientat...
Thickness characterization of thin films is of primary importance in a variety of nanotechnology applications, either in the semiconductor industry, quality control in nanofabrication processes or engineering of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) b...
To enhance the electrical performance of MgZnO-TFTs, this study employed radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering to fabricate MgZnO/ZTO thin films. Using these films as the channel layer, bottom-gate top-contact MgZnO/ZTO-TFT devices were construct...
In this work, a simple, cost-effective successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) deposition technique has been used to deposit a high-quality tin selenide (SnSe) thin film onto a glass substrate. Structural, morphologic, and thermoelectr...
This paper presents a fibered-epitaxial lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film with intermediate features between the monocrystalline and polycrystalline thin films for piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducer (pMUT). The grain boundaries c...
The development of semitransparent CdS/CdTe ultrathin solar cells has been delayed as a result of the activation annealing to which the device must be subjected, which may involve problems such as the sublimation of ultrathin films and the diffusion...
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) in the form of thin films has attracted enormous attention for photocatalysis. It combines the fundamental properties of TiO2 as a large bandgap semiconductor with the advantage of thin films, making it competitive with TiO2 p...
Tunable complex oxide thin films have generated a lot of interest in recent years due to their potential to become a core technology in the new generation of multiple communications devices. These films are grown via different deposition methods and...
Solar light-driven hydrogen by photocatalytic water splitting over a semiconductor photoelectrode has been considered a promising green energy carrier. P-type semiconducting copper oxides (Cu2O and CuO) have attracted remarkable attention as an effic...
We report on a novel method to fabricate composition gradient, epitaxial La1−xSrxMnO3 thin films with the objective to alleviate biaxial film strain. In this work, epitaxial, composition gradient La1−xSrxMnO3, and pure LaMnO3 and La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 thi...
This study investigates the fabrication and characterization of binary Ti-Si and Ti-Al thin-film metallic glasses (TFMGs) deposited via electron beam evaporation on cp Ti and Si substrates. X-ray diffraction confirmed the amorphous structure of the T...
The optical characterization of non-absorbing, homogeneous, isotropic polymer-like thin films with correlated, differently rough boundaries is essential in optimizing their performance in various applications. A central aim of this study is to derive...
In the last few decades, the development and use of thin films and nanostructured materials to enhance physical and chemical properties of materials has been common practice in the field of materials science and engineering. The progress which has re...
In this study, highly functional cationically modified nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC)/carboxyl-functionalized graphene quantum dots (CGQD) has been described. The surface of NCC was first modified with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTA) before...
Superconducting thin films are widely applied in various fields, including switching devices, because of their phase transition behaviors in relation to temperature changes. Therefore, it is important to quantitatively determine the optical constant...
The accuracy of thin-film characterization in terahertz spectroscopy is mainly set by the thickness uncertainty. Physical thickness measurement has limited accuracy for thin-film samples thinner than a few hundreds of micrometers and is sometimes eve...
In this study, a two-electrode electrodeposition technique was employed to grow thin films of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) on glass/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. The highest quality thin films were consistently obtained within the range of...
Polarizers are essential optical components for spectroscopic measurement, hyperspectral imaging and polarimetric detection over the past two decades. However, the wide variety of polarizers, characterization strategies, and spectroscopic application...
In recent years in the dental field, new types of materials and techniques for the manufacturing of dental crowns and analog implants have been developed to improve the quality of these products. The objective of this article was to perform the surfa...
Silicon nitride (SiNx) thin film is a promising coating with great physiochemical and optical properties. However, the preparation of films with good comprehensive properties still faces challenges. This study focused on developing a method for the p...
The topographies of various surfaces have been studied in many fields due to the significant influence that surfaces have on the practical performance of a given sample. A comprehensive evaluation requires the assistance of fractal analysis, which is...
PEDOT:PSS electron-blocking layer, and PEDOT:PSS + P3HT:PCBM stacked layers are fabricated by ultrasonic atomization and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical profilometry. The measured thicknesses based on SEM and optical p...
Thermoelectricity (TE) is proving to be a promising way to harvest energy for small applications and to produce a new range of thermal sensors. Recently, several thermoelectric generators (TEGs) based on nanomaterials have been developed, outperformi...
The purpose of this work is to study the influence of the annealing temperature on the structural, morphological, compositional and optical properties of CuSbSe2 thin films electrodeposited in a single step. CuSbSe2 thin films were grown on fluorine-...
Agrivoltaics (APV), the co-location of agriculture and photovoltaics (PV), addresses an inherent competition for land usage. Taking the same dual-use concept to the urban landscape, rooftop APV can provide locally grown food in areas of need while pr...
A broadband method for measuring the complex permeability of thin magnetic films using a short-circuited microstrip fixture is presented. The method is based on full one-port offset-short calibration implemented directly in the fixture with a movable...
Internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ pr...
Piezoelectric materials such as PVDF and its copolymers have been widely studied in different areas and with promising applications, such as haptic feedback actuators or deformation sensors for aided-mobility scenarios. To develop PVDF-based solution...
Thin films of BiFeO3, VO2, and BiFeO3/VO2 were grown on SrTiO3(100) and Al2O3(0001) monocrystalline substrates using radio frequency and direct current sputtering techniques. To observe the effect of the coupling between these materials, the surface...
Core-cyanated perylene diimide (PDI_CY) derivatives are molecular compounds exhibiting an uncommon combination of appealing properties, including remarkable oxidative stability, high electron affinities, and excellent self-assembling properties. Such...
In this work, we study the influence of the geometry of a thin film on its transmission spectrum, as measured on amorphous As-based chalcogenide layers grown onto 1-mm-thick soda-lime-silica glass substrates. A new method is suggested for a comprehen...
Miniaturization plays a critical role in modern microsystem engineering by enabling automation, reducing material consumption, and lowering operational costs. In electrochemical microsystems, thin-film electrodes are widely adopted due to their favor...
Several, nearly-1-µ
Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on SiO2 substrates by RF-magnetron sputtering at varying powers (110–140 W) and subsequently subjected to thermal annealing at 450 °C under nitrogen atmosphere. A comprehensive multi-techniqu...
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