Ultrathin films of metal oxides, nitrides and sulfides obtained by atomic layer deposition and other means

Abstract

Nanoscale materials are defined as materials where at least one dimension is in the nanometer scale approximately 1-100 nm. The reduction in the spatial dimension, in a particular crystallographic direction within a structure leads to changes in fundamental properties of the material. The changes which occur in electronic properties due to quantum size effects influence the physical properties and they can be altered by tuning the dimensionality.[1-4] The properties of a material at mesoscopic scale are governed not only by nature of its chemical bonds but also by its dimensionality and shape.[5, 6] The application of nanomaterials can be traced even before the development of modern science and technology. In 1857, Michael Faraday published a paper on how metal nanoparticles affect the color of church windows. The real burst of nanotechnology happened in the late 1990s when sophisticated instrumentation became available to characterize the nanomaterials.