Thin Film Formation Techniques

Abstract A thin film is a surface layer with thickness of a few micrometers. These films have properties much different than that of bulk materials or that of the substrate on which the film is deposited. There are a variety of techniques for thin‐film deposition, generally referred to as vapor deposition processes. Depending on the source of the vapors to be deposited, vapor deposition process can be classified as physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Among the two, PVD technique is more widely used for thin‐film formation. Here, vapors are produced using resistive heating, atomic sputtering, ion plating, magnetron sputtering or lasers, alone or in combination with each other. Most of the PVD processes require a high vacuum. In CVD technique, vapors are obtained from gas, liquid, or solid precursors and involve a chemical reaction for the film formation.