Interdisciplinary research on superconducting oxides is the main focus of the contributions in this volume. Several aspects of the thin film field from fundamental properties to applications are examined. Interesting results for the Bi system are also reviewed. The 132 papers, including 8 invited, report mainly on the 1-2-3 system, indicating that the Y-Ba-Cu-O and related compounds are still the most intensively studied materials in this field. The volume attests to the significant progress that has been made in this field, as well as reporting on the challenging problems that still remain to be solved.

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 synthesis of multicomponent/multilayered superconducting, conducting, semiconducting and insulating thin films has become the subject of an intensive, worldwide, interdisciplinary research effort. The development of deposition-characterization techniques and the science and technology related to the synthesis of these films are critical for the successful evolution of this interdisciplinary field of research and the implementation of the new materials in a whole new generation of advanced microdevices. This book contains the lectures and contributed papers on various scientific and technological aspects of multicomponent and multilayered thin films presented at a NATO/ASI. Compared to other recent books on thin films, the distinctive character of this book is the interdisciplinary treatment of the various fields of research related to the different thin film materials mentioned above. The wide range of topics discussed in this book include vacuum-deposition techniques, synthesis-processing, characterization, and devices of multicomponent/multilayered oxide high temperature superconducting, ferroelectric, electro-optic, optical, metallic, silicide, and compound semiconductor thin films. The book presents an unusual intedisciplinary exchange of ideas between researchers with cross-disciplinary backgrounds and it will be useful to established investigators as well as postdoctoral and graduate students.

The impetus for the rapid development of thin film technology, relative to that of bulk materials, is its application to a variety of microelectronic products. Many of the characteristics of thin film ferroelectric materials are utilized in the development of these products - namely, their nonvolatile memory and piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and electro-optic properties. It is befitting, therefore, that the first of a set of three complementary books with the general title Integrated Ferroelectric Devices and Technologies focuses on the synthesis of thin film ferroelectric materials and their basic properties. Because it is a basic introduction to the chemistry, materials science, processing, and physics of the materials from which integrated ferroelectrics are made, newcomers to this field as well as veterans will find this book self-contained and invaluable in acquiring the diverse elements requisite to success in their work in this area. It is directed at electronic engineers and physicists as well as process and system engineers, ceramicists, and chemists involved in the research, design, development, manufacturing, and utilization of thin film ferroelectric materials.

Thin films science and technology plays an important role in the high-tech industries. Thin film technology has been developed primarily for the need of the integrated circuit industry. The demand for development of smaller and smaller devices with higher speed especially in new generation of integrated circuits requires advanced materials and new processing techniques suitable for future giga scale integration (GSI) technology. In this regard, physics and technology of thin films can play an important role to acheive this goal. The production of thin films for device purposes has been developed over the past 40 years. Thin films as a two dimensional system are of great importance to many real-world problems. Their material costs are very small as compared to the corresponding bulk material and they perform the same function when it comes to surface processes. Thus, knowledge and determination of the nature, functions and new properties of thin films can be used for the development of new technologies for future applications.Thin film technology is based on three foundations: fabrication, characterization and applications. Some of the important applications of thin films are microelectronics, communication, optical electronics, catalysis, coating of all kinds, and energy generation and conservation strategies.This book emphasizes the importance of thin films and their properties for the new technologies. It presents basic principles, processes techniques and applications of thin films. As thin films physics and technology is a multidisciplinary field, the book will be useful to a wide varity of readers (especially young researcher) in physics, electronic engineering, material science and metallurgy.

With contributions by Paul F. Fewster and Christoph Genzel While X-ray diffraction investigation of powders and polycrystalline matter was at the forefront of materials science in the 1960s and 70s, high-tech applications at the beginning of the 21st century are driven by the materials science of thin films. Very much an interdisciplinary field, chemists, biochemists, materials scientists, physicists and engineers all have a common interest in thin films and their manifold uses and applications. Grain size, porosity, density, preferred orientation and other properties are important to know: whether thin films fulfill their intended function depends crucially on their structure and morphology once a chemical composition has been chosen. Although their backgrounds differ greatly, all the involved specialists a profound understanding of how structural properties may be determined in order to perform their respective tasks in search of new and modern materials, coatings and functions. The author undertakes this in-depth introduction to the field of thin film X-ray characterization in a clear and precise manner.