Sculptured thin film
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Sculptured thin films (STFs) are nanostructured materials with unidirectionally varying properties that can be designed and realized in a controllable manner using variants of physical vapor deposition. The ability to virtually instantaneously change the growth direction of their columnar morphology, through simple variations in the direction of the incident vapor flux, leads to a wide spectrum of columnar forms.[1]
Forms
These forms can be:
- two-dimensional, ranging from the simple slanted columns and chevrons[2] to the more complex C- and S-shaped morphologies[3]
- three-dimensional, including simple helixes and superhelixes
- combinations of two- and three-dimensional forms.
Properties
The column diameter and the column separation normal to the thickness direction of any STF are nominally constant. The column diameter can range from about 10 to 300
polymeric STFs have been deposited by combining physical and chemical vapor deposition processes; and deposition on micropatterned substrates
has also been carried out.
Uses
To date, the chief applications of STFs are in
tissue scaffolds, drug-delivery platforms, virus traps, and labs-on-a-chip are also in different stages of development.[citation needed
]
References
- Akhlesh Lakhtakia & Russell Messier (2005). Sculptured Thin Films: Nanoengineered Morphology and Optics. SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, USA. ISBN 0-8194-5606-3.