Thin-film technology is widely implemented in numerous applications. Although flat substrates are commonly used, we report on the advantages of using curved surfaces as a substrate. The curvature induces a lateral film-thickness variation that allows alteration of the properties of the deposited material. Based on this concept, a variety of implementations in materials science can be expected. ...

We report a layer-by-layer approach to the fabrication of thin polymer-based multilayers that release DNA rapidly in physiologically relevant environments. This approach exploits the properties of a weak anionic polyelectrolyte [poly(acrylic acid); PAA] to disrupt ionic interactions and promote disassembly in coatings that otherwise erode slowly. We investigated this approach using multilayers ...

ÐFree standing polycrystalline thin ®lms with a strong h111i texture were tested in uniaxial tension. Studied were electron-beam deposited Ag, Cu and Al ®lms, and Ag/Cu multilayers consisting of alternating Ag and Cu layers of equal thickness, between 1.5 nm and 1.5 mm (bilayer repeat length, l, between 3 nm and 3 mm). The ®lms had a total thickness of about 3 mm. A thin polymeric two-dimension...

The oxygen tracer diffusion coefficient describing transport along nano-/microscaled YSZ/Sc2O3 multilayers as a function of the thick-ness of the ion-conducting YSZ layers has been measured by isotope exchange depth profiling (IEDP), using secondary ion mass spec-trometry (SIMS). The multilayer samples were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on (0001) Al2O3 single crystalline substrates....