In chemistry and material sciences a film is a layer that can be in a liquid, liquid-crystalline, or solid state. Solid films are classified in different ways depending on their chemical composition, physical properties and their role within a device architecture. From an engineering viewpoint, the four chief classes are metals, semiconductors, polymers and ceramics (for example, see page 1 in [1]). Film thinness [2] describes the dimension (or average distance) between the two film interfaces. It is typically in the lower micrometer or in the nanometer range, when the adjective thin is applied. Various optical techniques are available to measure and characterize thin films (Table 10-2 on page 564 in [1]). Thin-film technology is rapidly developing, answering the growing demand for faster, smarter and recyclable nanodevices.
TSF is a commonly used acronym for thin solid films. There also is an international journal published under the same name [3], which often is referred to by using this acronym. Encoding of TSF composition and architecture is achieved with CurlySMILES [4].
Keywords: materials science, surface science, applied physics, nanotechnology
References
[1] Milton Ohring: Materials Science of Thin Films. Second Edition. Academic Press, San Diego, 2002.
[2] Many authors prefer the term film thickness instead, even for very thin films.
[3] Thin Solid Films. International Journal of the Science and Technology of Condensed Matter Films.
[4] Axel Drefahl: CurlySMILES encoding of thin solid films.
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