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Coatings
Special Issues
Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications
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Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Characterization, Deposition and Modification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 5348

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Steffen Wilbrandt

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany
Interests: optical coating characterization; in situ spectroscopy; software development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Olaf Stenzel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany
Interests: theory and modelling of optical coatings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue of Coatings on “Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications” welcomes research papers devoted to the preparation and/or properties of all kinds of metal or metal containing thin films with an optical application background in spectral regions ranging from the microwave spectral range up to the vacuum ultraviolet. There is no restriction on deposition techniques applied. In addition to conventional metal film applications in optics, we particularly encourage authors to contribute papers from the following fields:

  • Metal films for surface-sensitive spectroscopy versions;
  • Local field enhancement by metal films;
  • Nonlinear optical effects;
  • Structured and unstructured metal films in plasmonics;
  • Metal island films;
  • Transparent conductive oxides.

Dr. Steffen Wilbrandt
Dr. Olaf Stenzel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • metal films
  • metal island films
  • optical properties
  • local fields
  • non-linear optics
  • plasmonics
  • absorber coatings
  • transparent conducting oxides
  • structured coatings

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 6936 KiB  
Article
Optical Characterization of Al Island Films: A Round Robin Test
by Jordi Sancho-Parramon, Tatiana Amochkina, Steffen Wilbrandt, Hrishikesh Kamble, Vesna Janicki, Krešimir Salamon, Olaf Stenzel and Michael Trubetskov
Coatings 2023, 13(6), 1073; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13061073 - 09 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1020
Abstract
The determination of the effective optical constants of metal island films is an essential step towards the practical incorporation of this kind of films in optical coatings. In this work, the optical properties of aluminium island films deposited by electron beam evaporation on [...] Read more.
The determination of the effective optical constants of metal island films is an essential step towards the practical incorporation of this kind of films in optical coatings. In this work, the optical properties of aluminium island films deposited by electron beam evaporation on quartz substrates are investigated using different approaches employed by three research groups. The effective optical constants of the island films are inferred from optical measurements (spectrophotometry and spectroscopic ellipsometry) using: (i) a parameter-free dispersion model, (ii) a multiple oscillator model based on Gaussian line-shapes and (iii) the β distributed oscillator model. All the used approaches provide similar physical insights, i.e., an increase in the effective thickness of the metal island film, a red-shift and broadening of the plasmon resonance and an enhancement of the infrared absorption as the amount of deposited material increases. However, the optimal values of the effective optical constants and thickness significantly depend on the employed model and the experimental data used for data fitting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications)
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29 pages, 14928 KiB  
Article
Designing Optical Coatings with Incorporated Thin Metal Films
by Ronald R. Willey and Olaf Stenzel
Coatings 2023, 13(2), 369; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13020369 - 06 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1519
Abstract
In the world of nanomaterials and meta-materials, thin films are used which are an order of magnitude thinner than historically used in optical thin film coatings. A problem stems from the island structure that is seen as the film nucleates and grows until [...] Read more.
In the world of nanomaterials and meta-materials, thin films are used which are an order of magnitude thinner than historically used in optical thin film coatings. A problem stems from the island structure that is seen as the film nucleates and grows until there is coalescence or percolation of the islands into a nearly continuous film. The application problem is that the indices of refraction, n and k, vary with thickness from zero thickness up to some thickness such as 30 or 40 nanometers for silver. This behavior will be different from material to material and deposition process to deposition process; it is hardly modeled by simple mathematical functions. It has been necessary to design with only fixed thicknesses and associated indices instead. This paper deals with a tool for the practical task of designing optical thin films in this realm of non-bulk behavior of indices of refraction; no new research is reported here. Historically, two applications are known to have encountered this problem because of their thin metal layers which are on the order of 10 nm thick: (1) architectural low emittance (Low-E) coatings on window glazing with thin silver layers, and (2) black mirrors which transmit nothing and reflect as little as possible over the visible spectrum with thin layers of chromium or related metals. The contribution reported here is a tool to remove this software limitation and model thin layers whose indices vary in thickness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications)
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17 pages, 3020 KiB  
Article
Spectrophotometric Characterization of Thin Semi-Transparent Aluminum Films Prepared by Electron Beam Evaporation and Magnetron Sputtering
by Steffen Wilbrandt, Olaf Stenzel, Abrar Liaf, Peter Munzert, Stefan Schwinde, Sven Stempfhuber, Nadja Felde, Marcus Trost, Tina Seifert and Sven Schröder
Coatings 2022, 12(9), 1278; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12091278 - 01 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2269
Abstract
Aluminum thin films with thicknesses between approximately 10 and 60 nm have been deposited by evaporation and sputtering techniques. Layer characterization focused on reflectance, optical constants, and surface quality. Reflectance fits have been performed using a merger of three standard dispersion models, namely [...] Read more.
Aluminum thin films with thicknesses between approximately 10 and 60 nm have been deposited by evaporation and sputtering techniques. Layer characterization focused on reflectance, optical constants, and surface quality. Reflectance fits have been performed using a merger of three standard dispersion models, namely the Drude model, the Lorentzian oscillator model, and the beta-distributed oscillator model. A thickness dependence of the optical constants could be established in the investigated thickness range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal or Metal-Containing Films: From Preparation to Optical Applications)
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