Materials Science of Thin Films, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10 Characterization of Thin Films and Surfaces

10.1 INTRODUCTION

Scientific disciplines are identified and differentiated by the experimental equipment and measurement techniques they employ. The same is true of thin-film science and technology. For the first half of this century interest in thin films centered on optical applications. The role played by films was largely a utilitarian one necessitating measurement of film thickness and optical properties. At first single films on thick substrates were involved. However, with the explosive growth of thin-film utilization in microelectronics there was an important need to understand the intrinsic nature of films in more complex materials environments. Increasingly, the benefits of multilayer ...