Tutorials

The tutorial aims at providing an overview of: (i) thin-film vapor-based synthesis techniques; (ii) fundamentals of plasma processes used for vapor generation and thin-film deposition; (iii) atomic-scale processes and phenomena encountered during vapor-based film deposition. The primary audience of the tutorial is Ph.D. and M.Sc. students working in the field, but also scientists and engineers.

Module 1 (Stephanos Konstantinidis) – Low-pressure plasma physics and chemistry for thin-film deposition

Low-pressure plasma-based processes, such as magnetron sputtering or plasma–enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PEVCD) and their variants are studied and developed for a long time to deposit functional nanometer-thick films onto various substrates. Such functional coatings must have tailored physico-chemical properties to fit to the targeted application in fields like mechanics, optics, electronics, biomaterials, etc. The film structural and chemical characteristics are governed by the plasma. Therefore, the plasma characteristics must be monitored and tailored to control film growth and coating properties. The goal of this module to provide key insights into the relationships among plasma characteristics, plasma-surface interactions, and coating properties relationship, by addressing the following topics:

· Basics of collisional processes in low-pressure plasmas

· Plasma-surface interactions

· Plasma analysis techniques

Module 2 (Kostas Sarakinos) – Thin-film nucleation and growth

Thin-film technology is pervasive in many applications, including microelectronics, optics, magnetics, hard and corrosion resistant coatings, micromechanics, etc. Progress in each of these areas depends upon the ability to deposit thin films selectively and controllably (thickness ranging from tens of angstroms to micrometers) with specified physical properties. This, in turn, requires control—often at the atomic level—of film microstructure and microchemistry. In this module the following topics will be addressed:

· The concept of vapor-based thin-film deposition

· Film-formation stages and related atomic-scale processes

· Microstructure evolution in polycrystalline films

· Morphological evolution in epitaxial films.

Lecturers

Stephanos Konstantinidis is Senior Research Associate of the National Funds for Scientific Research (FNRS) and Professor at the University of Mons (UMONS) in Belgium. He holds a PhD degree from UMONS (2004). At UMONS, he is teaching analytical chemistry at B.Sc. level and plasma physics and chemistry at M.Sc. level. The goal of his research is to contribute towards the fundamental understanding of plasma-surface interactions. His studies focus on cold plasma-based methods, in particular magnetron sputtering processes, for the synthesis of functional thin films and nano-objects. To achieve this goal, advanced plasma analysis and surface characterization tools are utilized.

Kostas Sarakinos is Associate Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Guest Researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics from RWTH Aachen University, Germany (2008) and a Habilitation degree in Materials Science from Linköping University, Sweden (2012). Kostas’s research interests include atomistic processes during film nucleation and growth, growth manipulation, in situ growth monitoring, and deterministic and stochastic film growth simulations. He has co-authored 70 papers and 4 book chapters. He teaches courses related to materials, surface, and thin-film physics at undergraduate and post-graduate level.