Synthesis and Modification of Nanostructured Thin Films.

The idea of nanomaterials, nanoscience, and nanotechnologies was formulated by Richard Feynman in 1959 in his famous lecture "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" [...].

The idea of nanomaterials, nanoscience, and nanotechnologies was formulated by Richard Feynman in 1959 in his famous lecture “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. He said that “The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom”.

Since then, a nanomaterials “revolution” followed, confirming their superior properties, as e.g., toughness, strength, hardness, resistance to corrosion and wear, and various thermal, magnetic, and optical features. In this context, the fabrication and characterization of thin films remains the main cornerstone of nanotechnologies.

As a rule, films are deposited onto solid surfaces to obtain better properties. A thin film is basically defined as a low-dimension material fabricated by assembling atomic/molecular/ionic species with a final thickness in the nm range. Nano-thin films can be essentially synthesized from any kind of material, which opens the way to vast application domains.

This Special Issue on “Synthesis and Modification of Nanostructured Thin Films” contains contributions about thin film synthesis, modification, and characterization for potential applications in leading domains. This collection of 18 research papers represents 136 authors from 12 countries, and is devoted to advanced topics in both the synthesis (13) as well as the modification (5) of nanostructured thin films. In particular, the thickness of films ranges from a few up to 250 nm.

The major compounds of key interest were studied, including AlGaN [1], Cu NWs [2], photonic crystal fibers [3], LiNbO3 [4], Au nanoparticles [5], Al2O3/Tm2O3 [6], Ge-DLC [7], Mo/Ti [8], ZnTe:Cu [9], Ge–Sb–Te [10], noble metal nanoparticles [11], collagen/Zn2+-substituted calcium phosphates [12], TiO2 [13], Si-DLC [14], SHG in ZnO nanofilms [15], Cu2MgxZn1−xSnS4 [16], ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) matrices [17], and LIPSS [18].

In the opinion of this Editor, the main characteristic of this selection is the quite large range of applications, which extends from nanobiomedicine to solar cells.

Finally, one should stress upon the original character of all contributions, which will serve as active vectors in the years to come for the further dynamic development of new nanostructured thin film systems.