Thin film
hideThin films are thin material layers ranging from fractions of a nanometre to several micrometres in thickness. Electronic semiconductor devices and optical coatings are the main applications benefiting from thin film construction.
Work is being done with ferromagnetic thin films for use as computer memory. It is also being applied to pharmaceuticals, via thin film drug delivery. Thin-films are used to produce thin-film batteries.
Ceramic thin films are in wide use. The relatively high hardness and inertness of ceramic materials make this type of thin coating of interest for protection of substrate materials against corrosion, oxidation and wear. In particular, the use of such coatings on cutting tools can extend the life of these items by several orders of magnitude.
Research is being done on a new class of thin film inorganic oxide materials, called amorphous heavy-metal cation multicomponent oxide, which could be used to make transparent transistors that are inexpensive, stable, and environmentally benign.
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News tagged with thin films
How Small is Too Small? Researchers Find that Polarization Changes at the Nanoscale
Sep 08, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- How small is too small to be useful? Researchers at North Carolina State University have done nanoscale analysis on ferroelectric thin films – materials that are used in electronic devices from computer ...
Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jun 12, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (19) |
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Germany is one of the leading countries when it comes to efforts related to renewable energy sources. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Institute of Condensed Matter and Solid State Optics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität ...
New organic material may speed Internet access
Mar 15, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (16) |
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The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard.
Plastics that convert light to electricity could have a big impact
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Aug 04, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (12) |
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University of Washington researchers have found a way to measure exactly how much electrical current is carried by tiny bubbles and channels that form inside nanoscale solar cells, paving the way for development ...
Infrared Nanotube Films Offer Advantages for Solar Cells and More
Mar 11, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and ...
Controlling the electronic surface properties of a material
Jul 17, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (14) |
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A recent breakthrough by researchers at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute sees for the first time the creation of thin films with controllable electronic properties. This discovery could have a large impact ...
Will carbon nanotubes replace indium tin oxide?
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 09, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Up until now, George Grüner tells PhysOrg.com, most of the studies regarding the properties - and uses - of carbon nanotubes have been restricted to the visible spectral range. “We, however, were interested in the ...
Shocking: Environmental chemistry affects ferroelectric film polarity the same way electric voltage does
Feb 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- “Ferroelectric materials are interesting scientifically, and, while they are used for some things now, they are potentially useful for even more applications in the future,” Brian Stephenson tells PhysOrg.com. Stephe ...
Under pressure at the nanoscale, polymers play by different rules
Oct 02, 2008 |
4.6 / 5 (8) |
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Scientists putting the squeeze on thin films of polystyrene have discovered that at very short length scales the polymer doesn't play by the rules.
Stretchable Nanotube Films May Advance Medical Electronics (Update)
May 04, 2009 |
3.6 / 5 (10) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the issues hindering the development of medical electronic devices capable of being implanted in the human body is the lack of suitable materials. Most semiconducting materials are ...
Thinnest superconducting metal created
Jun 08, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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A superconducting sheet of lead only two atoms thick, the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created, has been developed by physicists at The University of Texas at Austin.
New nanocluster to boost thin films for semiconductors
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 31, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (6) |
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Oregon researchers have synthesized an elusive metal-hydroxide compound in sufficient and rapidly produced yields, potentially paving the way for improved precursor inks that could boost semiconductor capabilities for large-area ...
Forget the freezer: Research suggests novel way to control water behavior
Feb 20, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (7) |
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Researchers may be able to "freeze" water into a solid, not by cooling but by confining it to narrow spaces less than one-millionth of a millimeter wide, according to new results from an interdisciplinary team of scientists ...
Terahertz Waves Are Effective Probes for IC Heat Barriers
May 06, 2009 |
3 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- By modifying a commonly used commercial infrared spectrometer to allow operation at long-wave terahertz frequencies, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology discovered ...
Water droplets direct self-assembly process in thin-film materials
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 23, 2009 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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You can think of it as origami - very high-tech origami. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon structures from thin films by coupling ...
