Semiconductor Thin Films: Growth, Characterization, Integration and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites papers on the use of thin films in various fields of science and technology. Of particular interest are thin-film materials used as key elements of technological progress in the production of electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic devices and their integration into various types of devices, as well as the use of high-efficiency thin-film materials for photovoltaic and thermoelectric converters and biomedical technological applications. Papers on their integration with MEMS devices and other recent electronic technologies and their use in industrial devices are also welcome. The areas of application of thin film materials include, among others, photodetectors, infrared and quantum infrared photodetectors (QWIP), semiconductor and quantum cascade lasers, LEDs, solar cells, field-effect transistors, and integrated circuits. These, in turn, include semiconductor devices, wireless devices, telecommunications, integrated circuits, solar cells, and computer chips.  

The thin-film materials this Special Issue aims to focus on are semiconductors, conductive thin films of metal oxides, organic semiconductors, amorphous carbon thin films, nanostructured materials, and other similar materials. This includes:

* Scientific aspects of methods of deposition and processing of thin films; growth and crystallization of thin films, atomic layer crystallization, nucleation and processes during growth and heat treatment of thin films; mechanisms of adsorption and chemical processes on the surface; formation of crystal structures during growth of metal films, epitaxial thin films of intermetallic compounds, pulsed laser deposition of thin films: expectations and real structure of monocrystalline films; in situ growth and classification of cluster morphologists: study of carbon-based materials and growth of composite metal thin films;

* Thin film and coating technologies, including physical vapor deposition (PVD), pulsed laser deposition methods, plasma and ion beam methods, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD);

* Identification of the characteristics of thin films using electrical, thermal, spectroscopic, optical, mechanical, X-ray, and electron microscopic methods; photocurrent spectroscopy of thin passive films, low-frequency noise spectroscopy of polycrystalline semiconductor thin films and film devices, low-energy electron diffraction spectroscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy of ultrathin films.

More generally, the topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Technologies for growing thin films;
• Mechanisms of growth of thin films;

• Wide-bandgap and narrow-bandgap semiconductors thin films;
• Carbon: nanotubes and graphene;
• Topological insulators thin films;
• Thin-film structures for photovoltaic and thermoelectric devices;

• Thin film coatings for biomedicine and bioelectronics devices.

Prof. Ihor S. Virt
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• thin-film technologies
• mechanisms of growth of thin films
• thin-film structures
• electronic, optoelectronic, photovoltaic, and thermoelectric structures
• thin film coatings