The Physical Properties Of Thin Metal Films

Thin films of conducting materials, such as metals, alloys and semiconductors are currently in use in many areas of science and technology, particularly in modern integrated circuit microelectronics that require high quality thin films for the manufacture of connection layers, resistors and ohmic contacts. These conducting films are also important for fundamental investigations in physics, radio-physics and physical chemistry. Physical Properties of Thin Metal Films provides a clear presentation of the complex physical properties particular to thin conducting films and includes the necessary theory, confirming experiments and applications. The volume will be an invaluable reference for graduates, engineers and scientists working in the electronics industry and fields of pure and applied science.

Thin films of conducting materials, such as metals, alloys and semiconductors are currently in use in many areas of science and technology, particularly in modern integrated circuit microelectronics that require high quality thin films for the manufacture of connection layers, resistors and ohmic contacts. These conducting films are also important for fundamental investigations in physics, radio-physics and physical chemistry. Physical Properties of Thin Metal Films provides a clear presentation of the complex physical properties particular to thin conducting films and includes the necessary theory, confirming experiments and applications. The volume will be an invaluable reference for graduates, engineers and scientists working in the electronics industry and fields of pure and applied science.

Treatise on Materials Science and Technology, Volume 24: Preparation and Properties of Thin Films covers the progress made in the preparation of thin films and the corresponding study of their properties. The book discusses the preparation and property correlations in thin film; the variation of microstructure of thin films; and the molecular beam epitaxy of superlattices in thin film. The text also describes the epitaxial growth of silicon structures (thermal-, laser-, and electron-beam-induced); the characterization of grain boundaries in bicrystalline thin films; and the mechanical properties of thin films on substrates. The ion beam modification of thin film; the use of thin alloy films for metallization in microelectronic devices; and the fabrication and physical properties of ultrasmall structures are also encompassed. Materials scientists and materials engineers will find the book invaluable.

This research monograph discusses the close correlation between the magnetic and structural properties of thin films in the context of numerous examples of epitaxial metal films, while emphasis is laid on the stabilization of novel structures compared to the bulk material. Further options, possibilities, and limits for applications are given. Techniques for the characterization of thin films are addressed as well.

This five-volume handbook focuses on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of thin films (thin layers of insulating, conducting, or semiconductor material). The editor has composed five separate, thematic volumes on thin films of metals, semimetals, glasses, ceramics, alloys, organics, diamonds, graphites, porous materials, noncrystalline solids, supramolecules, polymers, copolymers, biopolymers, composites, blends, activated carbons, intermetallics, chalcogenides, dyes, pigments, nanostructured materials, biomaterials, inorganic/polymer composites, organoceramics, metallocenes, disordered systems, liquid crystals, quasicrystals, and layered structures. Thin films is a field of the utmost importance in today's materials science, electrical engineering and applied solid state physics; with both research and industrial applications in microelectronics, computer manufacturing, and physical devices. Advanced, high-performance computers, high-definition TV, digital camcorders, sensitive broadband imaging systems, flat-panel displays, robotic systems, and medical electronics and diagnostics are but a few examples of miniaturized device technologies that depend the utilization of thin film materials. The Handbook of Thin Films Materials is a comprehensive reference focusing on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of these thin film materials.

The explosive growth in the semiconductor industry has caused a rapid evolution of thin film materials that lend themselves to the fabrication of state-of-the-art semiconductor devices. Early in the 1960s an old research technique named chemical vapour phase deposition (CVD), which has several unique advantages, developed into the most widely used technique for thin film preparation in electronics technology. In the last 25 years, tremendous advances have been made in the science and technology of thin films prepared by means of CVD. This book presents in a single volume, an up-to-date overview of the important field of CVD processes which has never been completely reviewed previously.