Thin films in restricted geometries

Abstract

The most notable characteristic in the development of thin film technology as used in integrated circuits is the continuous effort towards the reduction of dimensions: a thickness and size of 500 and 5000 atomic layers, respectively, are now easily obtainable with high reproducibility, and still smaller dimensions will be acheived in the near future. Such structures are characterized by strong border effects and consequently shape becomes an important factor that influences the performance of the devices. Hence, in addition to the fundamental necessity of controlling thickness (by a suitable growth technique) and size (by photolithography), for thin films there is the further problem of controlling shape.