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Nanomaterials
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Synthesis and Properties of Metal Oxide Thin Films
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Synthesis and Properties of Metal Oxide Thin Films

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis, Interfaces and Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 3478

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Raúl Gago

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, E-28049 Madrid, Spain
Interests: thin films; magnetron sputtering; metal oxides; x-ray absorption; ion-induced surface patterning; ion beam analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanostructured thin films have attracted a great deal of interest in recent decades due to their unique, size-dependent, physicochemical properties. This trend has been accompanied with a parallel development of thin film manufacturing technology, enabling the production of advanced thin film architectures and their application in a wide range of fields. The list of potential applications is practically endless, with an impact being had in nearly every industrial sector.

One of the hottest current research topics is the design and development of metal oxide thin films with tailored properties suitable for applications in different fields, including (opto-) electronics, (photo-) catalysis, (bio-) sensing, photovoltaic cells, spintronic, (bio-) medicine, surfaces with special characteristics like biomimetic surfaces, smart patterned surfaces, surfaces with controlled wettability, and so on.

Consequently, taking into account the multidisciplinary aspect of the research area of nanomaterials, this Special Issue welcomes the submission of research articles or reviews focused on the synthesis, characterization, and/or applications of metal oxide thin films. Topics of special interest include emerging applications as well as novel approaches for synthetizing metal oxide structures upon doping, nanostructuring, heterostructure assembling, etc. We invite authors from leading groups in the field to contribute, with the aim of providing a balanced view of the current state of the art in this discipline.

Dr. Raúl Gago
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nanostructured thin films
  • metal oxide
  • design and synthesis
  • surfaces with special characteristics
  • electronics

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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11 pages, 2887 KiB  
Article
β-Ga2O3 Thin Films via an Inorganic Sol–Gel Spin Coating: Preparation and Characterization
by Hai Zhang, Dingyuan Niu, Junbiao Yang, Xiaoyang Zhang, Jun Zhu and Wencai Li
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(4), 277; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15040277 - 12 Feb 2025
Viewed by 601
Abstract
β-Ga2O3 holds significant promise for use in ultraviolet (UV) detectors and high-power devices due to its ultra-wide bandgap. However, the cost-effective preparation of large-area thin films remains challenging. In this study, β-Ga2O3 thin films are prepared using [...] Read more.
β-Ga2O3 holds significant promise for use in ultraviolet (UV) detectors and high-power devices due to its ultra-wide bandgap. However, the cost-effective preparation of large-area thin films remains challenging. In this study, β-Ga2O3 thin films are prepared using an inorganic solution reaction spin-coating method followed by post-annealing. The structures, surface morphologies, and optical properties of the films are then characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry. A low-cost Ga metal was used to produce NH4Ga(SO4)2, which was then converted into a precursor solution and spin-coated onto sapphire and quartz substrates. Ten cycles of spin coating produced smoother films, although higher annealing temperatures induced more cracks. The films on the (0001) sapphire subjected to spin-coating and preheating processes that were repeated for ten cycles, followed by annealing at 800 °C, had a preferred orientation in the [–201] direction. All the films showed high transmittances of 85% in ultraviolet–visible light with wavelengths above 400 nm. The films on the (0001) sapphire substrate that were annealed at 800 °C and 1000 °C exhibited bandgaps of 4.8 and 4.98 eV, respectively. The sapphire substrates demonstrated a superior compatibility for high-quality Ga2O3 film fabrication compared to quartz. This method offers a cost-effective and efficient approach for producing high-quality β-Ga2O3 films on high-temperature-resistant substrates with promising potential for optoelectronic applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis and Properties of Metal Oxide Thin Films)
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17 pages, 9752 KiB  
Article
Impact of Silver Incorporation and Flash-Lamp-Annealing on the Photocatalytic Response of Sputtered ZnO Films
by Leo Álvarez-Fraga, Raúl Gago, David G. Calatayud, Slawomir Prucnal and Olga Sánchez
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(18), 1519; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14181519 - 19 Sep 2024
Viewed by 922
Abstract
Thin films of silver-doped zinc oxide (SZO) were deposited at room temperature using a DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique using two independent Zn and Ag targets. The crystallographic structure, chemical composition and surface morphology of SZO films with different silver concentrations were correlated [...] Read more.
Thin films of silver-doped zinc oxide (SZO) were deposited at room temperature using a DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique using two independent Zn and Ag targets. The crystallographic structure, chemical composition and surface morphology of SZO films with different silver concentrations were correlated with the photocatalytic (PC) properties. The crystallization of the SZO films was made using millisecond range flash-lamp-annealing (FLA) treatments. FLA induces significant structural ordering of the wurtzite structure and an in-depth redistribution of silver, resulting in the formation of silver agglomerates. The wurtzite ZnO structure is observed for silver contents below 10 at.% where Ag is partially incorporated into the oxide matrix, inducing a decrease in the optical band-gap. Regardless of the silver content, all the as-grown SZO films do not exhibit any significant PC activity. The best PC response is achieved for samples with a relatively low Ag content (2–5 at.%) after FLA treatment. The enhanced PC activity of SZO upon FLA can be attributed to structural ordering and the effective band-gap narrowing through the combination of silver doping and the plasmonic effect caused by the formation of Ag clusters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis and Properties of Metal Oxide Thin Films)
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13 pages, 2396 KiB  
Article
P-Type ZnO Films Made by Atomic Layer Deposition and Ion Implantation
by Guoxiu Zhang, Lars Rebohle, Fabian Ganss, Wojciech Dawidowski, Elzbieta Guziewicz, Jung-Hyuk Koh, Manfred Helm, Shengqiang Zhou, Yufei Liu and Slawomir Prucnal
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(13), 1069; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14131069 - 22 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1314
Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide bandgap semiconductor that holds significant potential for various applications. However, most of the native point defects in ZnO like Zn interstitials typically cause an n-type conductivity. Consequently, achieving p-type doping in ZnO is challenging but crucial for [...] Read more.
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide bandgap semiconductor that holds significant potential for various applications. However, most of the native point defects in ZnO like Zn interstitials typically cause an n-type conductivity. Consequently, achieving p-type doping in ZnO is challenging but crucial for comprehensive applications in the field of optoelectronics. In this work, we investigated the electrical and optical properties of ex situ doped p-type ZnO films. The p-type conductivity has been realized by ion implantation of group V elements followed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) for 60 s or flash lamp annealing (FLA) on the millisecond time scale in nitrogen or oxygen ambience. The phosphorus (P)-doped ZnO films exhibit stable p-type doping with a hole concentration in the range of 1014 to 1018 cm−3, while antimony (Sb) implantation produces only n-type layers independently of the annealing procedure. Microstructural studies of Sb-doped ZnO show the formation of metallic clusters after ms range annealing and SbZn-oxides after RTA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis and Properties of Metal Oxide Thin Films)
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