Watching crystals grow provides clues to making smoother, defect-free thin films
Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 01:28
in Physics & Chemistry
To make thin films for semiconductors in electronic devices, layers of atoms must be grown in neat, crystalline sheets. But while some materials grow smooth crystals, others tend to develop bumps and defects -- a serious problem for thin-film manufacturing. Physicists shed new light on how atoms arrange themselves into thin films.