Nanotechnology

Week 7 - Surfaces and Thin Films

In this unit we will cover surfaces and thin films. Surfaces have long been the focus of 'nanochemistry', long before we called it that, going way back to Langmuir-Blodgett films, and Self Assembled Monolayers (SAMs).

• Surfaces
• Surface structure
• Surface chemistry
• Surface physics
• Surface modification
• Surface characterization
• Thin films
• Thin film applications
• Thin film structures
• Thin film application techniques
• Sputtering
• CVD, PE-CVD, MO-CVD
• MBE – Molecular Beam Epitaxy
• Self – assembled films
• Dendrimers and Langmuir-Blodgett films
• Lecture for this week - Surfaces and Interfaces (PPT)
• Tutorials for this section
  • Surfaces - http://www.uksaf.org/tutorials.html (excellent compilation of online tutorials)
  • Introduction to surface chemistry - http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/surfaces/scc/sccindex.htm
  • Lecture notes on surfaces and thin films - http://venables.asu.edu/grad/lectures.html
  • The Application of Self-Assembled Alkanethiol Monolayers to Enzyme Biosensors - http://neo.pharm.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/tals/mr016/brynn.html

Learning outcomes for this week

1. What is a surface?
2. Why are surfaces important?
3. What is surface energy?
4. Describe surface passivation processes
5. What is surface modification?
6. What is a thin film?
7. Diagram a typical thin film
8. How can thin film properties be engineered?
9. What are thin film deposition techniques?
10. What are some typical thin film applications?

Copyright © 2006 - 2007 Robert D. Cormia - January 7, 2007