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 book offers an overview of critical issues related to nanowires, as well as progress in synthesis, structure, properties and devices.

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

This book focuses on research related to ionic conducting (e.g., protons, oxygen ions) materials and devices. Contributions range from fundamental materials R&D, to characterization, to materials for batteries, sensors, membranes, supercapacitors and fuel cells. Special emphasis is given to miniaturized solid-oxide fuel cells (micro-SOFCs), from fundamental materials studies which are still very much needed for this application, to the development of devices. Innovative concepts for energy storage are also discussed.