Thin Films: Sputtering, PVD Methods, and Applications

This chapter is intended to provide an overview of the background, development and application of thin film, and surface modification processes at a level suitable for readers who are new to the field or for those who simply need an update of latest developments and applications. Many references are included for more comprehensive details of work in specific areas of application for readers with specialist interests. Surface coating has been used for many centuries for decorative purposes with the earliest gold films documented in an excellent review of this earlier work by Greene [1].

This chapter is concerned with thin films created by the ejection of atoms, molecules, and other fragments from a target material bombarded by energetic particles known as “sputtering.” This process is now widely used to provide a source of material for coating various substrates, forming multicomponent layers [2], depth profiling [3], preparing thin samples for atomically resolved imaging [4], and forming periodic structures [5].