Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Thin Films: Growth and Interfaces

In course

MSE-304: Surfaces and interfaces

This lecture introduces the fundamental concepts for describing, characterizing, and engineering surfaces and interfaces. Students will develop both theoretical and practical understanding of how interfacial phenomena influence surface properties and techn ...

Description

This lecture covers the mechanisms of dislocation motion in crystal structures, including glide and climb motions. It also delves into the concepts of glissile and sessile interfaces, as well as the growth models for thin films in modern technology, such as molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition. The presentation explores the morphology control of thin films and different growth models, including Frank-Van der Merwe, Volmer-Weber, and Stranski-Krastanov. The discussion extends to strained and unstrained growth, diffusion-limited aggregation, and concludes with insights into the nature of interfaces and dislocations in thin film growth.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructors (2)

Nako Nakatsuka

Francesco Stellacci

Francesco Stellacci graduated in Materials Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1998 with a thesis on photochromic polymers with Prof. Giuseppe Zerbi and Mariacarla Gallazzi. In 1999 he moved to the Chemistry Department of the University of Arizona for as a post-doc in the group of Joe Perry in close collaboration with the group of Seth Marder. In 2002 he moved to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. He was then promoted to associate without (2006) and with tenure (2009). In 2010 he moved to the Institute of Materials at EPFL as a full Professor. He holds the Alcan EP Chair. Francesco was one of the recipients of the Technology Review TR35 "35 Innovator under 35" award in 2005, and the Popular Science Magazine "Brilliant 10" award in 2007. He has been a Packard Fellow starting 2005.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Thin film

A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer (monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many applications. A familiar example is the household mirror, which typically has a thin metal coating on the back of a sheet of glass to form a reflective interface. The process of silvering was once commonly used to produce mirrors, while more recently the metal layer is deposited using techniques such as sputtering.

Dislocation

In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to slide over each other at low stress levels and is known as glide or slip. The crystalline order is restored on either side of a glide dislocation but the atoms on one side have moved by one position. The crystalline order is not fully restored with a partial dislocation.

Molecular-beam epitaxy

Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxy method for thin-film deposition of single crystals. MBE is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including transistors, and it is considered one of the fundamental tools for the development of nanotechnologies. MBE is used to fabricate diodes and MOSFETs (MOS field-effect transistors) at microwave frequencies, and to manufacture the lasers used to read optical discs (such as CDs and DVDs). Original ideas of MBE process were first established by K.

Epitaxy

Epitaxy (prefix epi- means "on top of”) refers to a type of crystal growth or material deposition in which new crystalline layers are formed with one or more well-defined orientations with respect to the crystalline seed layer. The deposited crystalline film is called an epitaxial film or epitaxial layer. The relative orientation(s) of the epitaxial layer to the seed layer is defined in terms of the orientation of the crystal lattice of each material.

User interface

In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end, while the machine simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operators' decision-making process. Examples of this broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls and process controls.

Related lectures (54)

PVD 7: Other Techniques MOOC: Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS)

Explores ion plating, MBE, and PLD techniques in thin film fabrication.

Thin Film Growth: Mechanisms and Applications

Explores thin film growth mechanisms, organic thin film considerations, deposition techniques, and patterning for electronic devices.

Strain and Heteroepitaxy

Explores the impact of strain on semiconductor band structures, epitaxy, critical thickness, and defect formation, emphasizing the role of Hooke's law and elasticity theory.

Thin Film Growth: Atoms Arrival and Adhesion MOOC: Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS)

Delves into thin film growth, adhesion, crystal structure, and stresses.

Thin Films: Deposition and Growth