Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and onto fl exible foils of metal or plastic. There are many ways to make
such thin fi lms, and thin fi lm science and technology are huge fi elds of very
large importance not only for eco-effi cient applications but for almost all
modern technologies. It should not come as a surprise that there are numer-
ous topics and tutorial presentations on the subject. Some standard texts
are by Maissel and Glang (1970), Vossen and Kern (1978, 1991), Bunshah
et al.
(1982), Smith (1995), Pulker (1999), Gläser (2000), Mahan (2000),
Ohring (2002) and Mattox (2003, 2010). A general, popular survey of mate-
rials for many different eco-effi cient constructions appeared recently
(Ginley and Cahen, 2012).
This chapter gives a brief survey over the most important technologies
for making thin fi lms and nanostructured coatings and includes a number
of specifi c examples. We consider fi lms made by vacuum-based and non-
vacuum-based techniques as well as nanoparticle-based coatings. For the
vacuum-based techniques we look specifi cally at the possibilities to con-
struct nanostructures by judicially chosen incidence of the deposition
species and by moving the substrate. We then discuss large-scale deposition
and round off the presentation by some concluding remarks. Nano-aspects
- and there are many (Messier, 2008) - remain in focus throughout the
exposition. This chapter can be viewed as an adaptation and signifi cant
extension of earlier presentations (see Appendix 1 in the topic by Smith
and Granqvist (2010) as well as a 'primer' by Granqvist (2012) ).
8.2
Major thin fi lm technologies and some
illustrative examples
Table 8.1 gives an overview of the most important thin fi lm technologies.
They are classifi ed according to the depositing species being atomistic (or
molecular), particulate or in bulk form, or whether the surface of a material
is modifi ed in order to produce a layer with properties that are distinctly
different from those of the underlying material. Atomistic deposition is
most commonly used for eco-effi cient constructions.
8.2.1 Vacuum- and plasma-based techniques: basics of
evaporation and sputtering
Evaporation is a very well-known technique for making thin fi lms. It is in
constant use in research laboratories all over the world and has been so for
60 years or more. It is widespread also industrially today. This technique
entails that the raw material of the fi lm is heated in vacuum so that a vapour
comprising atoms or molecules transfers material to the substrate at a suf-
fi cient rate (Holland, 1956; Glang, 1970). The energy of the impinging
species is typically a fraction of an electron volt. The heating can be
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