The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners.

Thin-film growth is a very old art and an established scientific field in materials science. For decades, growth of monocrystal-like films has been practiced by making use of epitaxy on monocrystalline substrates. In the quest for greater control of materials, the next level of achievement will be to grow well-oriented thin films on arbitrary substrates, i.e., without the need for monocrystalline substrates. That is the goal of artificially inducing grain alignment in thin films. Texturing methods show significant promise in fabricating technologically attractive grain-aligned films. However, over the last three decades a variety of methods for grain alignment have been demonstrated with varying degrees of success. The focus of this book is on physical vapor deposition methods for growth of inorganic thin films, with special attention paid to ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) texturing. Topics include: milestones in IBAD texturing; IBAD texturing; IBAD long-length application and texturing by other techniques.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have transitioned from a technology niche to a role of major industrial significance. The worldwide market for MEMS is now approximately $10 billion, and the total value of systems enabled by MEMS is several orders of magnitude higher than this figure. As the market has grown, the material and process sets have broadened and departed from their semiconductor roots. In addition to engineering materials, there is now great interest in integrating multifunctional nanomaterials, smart materials and biomaterials within MEMS/NEMS to enhance functionality, performance and reliability. The opportunities created by this integration have generated a vibrant research community working on new materials and processes. This book reflects the breadth of topics currently under investigation in the field. Novel materials and accompanying processes are discussed, as are more conventional materials and processes. Consistent themes are the need for accurate material property assessment at the relevant length scales and for suitable metrology tools to support the introduction of new materials.

The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners.

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.

Present-day scienceand technology have become increasingly based on studies and applications of thin films. This is especiallytrue of solid-state physics, semiconduc tor electronics, integrated optics, computer science, and the like. In these fields, it is necessary to use filmswith an ordered structure, especiallysingle-crystallinefilms, because physical phenomena and effects in such films are most reproducible. Also, active parts of semiconductor and other devices and circuits are created, as a rule, in single-crystal bodies. To date, single-crystallinefilms have been mainly epitaxial (or heteroepitaxial); i.e., they have been grown on a single-crystalline substrate, and principal trends, e.g., in the evolution of integrated circuits (lCs), have been based on continuing reduction in feature size and increase in the number of components per chip. However, as the size decreases into the submicrometer range, technological and physical limitations in integrated electronics become more and more severe. It is generally believed that a feature size of about 0.1um will have a crucial character. In other words, the present two-dimensional ICs are anticipated to reach their limit of minimization in the near future, and it is realized that further increase of packing density and/or functions might depend on three-dimensional integration. To solve the problem, techniques for preparation of single-crystalline films on arbitrary (including amorphous) substrates are essential.

The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners. This book offers an overview of critical issues related to nanowires, as well as progress in synthesis, structure, properties and devices.

This volume commemorates the 10th anniversary of the discovery of high temperature superconductors (HTS). The historical framework and present status of HTS are reviewed, and the future of the field contemplated so that the HTS science can be unraveled and the HTS technology developed. This book contains the works of about 200 members of the international HTS community — from universities, government centers and laboratories, major industries and small businesses. It focuses on early and major new findings in the physics and mechanisms, materials and applications of HTS, with a projection to the emerging and future areas in science and technology.