Structure and growth of thin films

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Abstract
The field of thin films continues to be a dynamic, rapidly changing area of research. It involves the formation of solid materials on an atom -by-atom basis. The complexities of the interaction processes involved in film formation are enormous, but the potential for constructing new and more useful materials is just as great. The purpose in this article is to provide an up-to-date review of the most fundamental aspects of this field. No attempt is made to present a comprehensive review of the many varied and interesting types of films and their applications. Rather the discussion is limited to films formed by vacuum evaporation and the fundamental processes involved in film growth. A discussion of why particular growth modes occur is followed by a review of the most common methods used in their detection. The basic theory and experimental observations of the three main modes of growth, Volmer-Weber, Frank and Van der Merwe, and Stranski-Krastanov, are then discussed. Epitaxial growth is considered in the context of each particular growth mode. Th,e article concludes with some selected examples of epitaxial polycrystalline growth.