Topic thin films

News thin films

• Quartz crystal microbalances enable new microscale analytic technique
  

  A new chemical analysis technique developed by a research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses the shifting ultrasonic pitch of a small quartz crystal to test the purity of only a few micrograms of material. Since it works with samples close to a thousand times sma more

• Fuel cells in operation: A closer look

  Measuring a fuel cell's overall performance is relatively easy, but measuring its components individually as they work together is a challenge. That's because one of the best experimental techniques for investigating the details of an electrochemical device while it's operating is x-ray photoelectro more

• X-Ray Vision: Seeing Plastic Mixtures Inside and Out

  Two scientists working in Europe have paved the way for improved plastic electronics by devising a technique that can be used to take images of plastic mixtures on the nanoscale simultaneously in the body of the material and at the surface. Low-cost plastic solar cells, brighter displays, and a lon more

White papers thin films

• UV/Vis/NIR Spectrometry for the Film Thickness Determination of Transparent Films and Layers
  

  Within nearly all branches of industry we find products, which are coated with thin transparent layers to improve the surface features: Window sheet glasses obtain changes in reflection and absorption behavior, ceramics are treated with coatings to lower water adhesion, coatings on metals create corrosion resistance or better sliding factors. Transparent coatings play also a major role in the semiconductor business. One of the important features to be determined and controlled is the thickness of the layers to balance performance and material input during development and production more

• Good Reasons to Use ATR Libraries
  

  Transmission spectroscopy was the only method in general use until the early 1960s. The first applications of attenuated total reflection (ATR) or internal reflection spectroscopy were reported independently by Fahrenfort and Harrick. Especially macromolecular materials (rubbers, fibers, fabrics, coatings, laminates etc), which often failed to yield useful transmittance spectra, became accessible for infrared spectroscopic investigations by the ATR technique. Meanwhile, the ATR technique has been proven to be an extremely useful technique for material analysis and has become more widely used for all but gaseous samples. more

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