In today’s world, functional materials are part of everyday life e.g. a protective finish on devices, object or tools to reduce wear and tear, coatings for decoration, sensors or medical applications, ...

An extensive range of insulating thin films are utilized in modern VLSI circuits providing electrical isolation between conducting regions within a device and as a final capping passivation layer.

Copper’s resistivity depends on its crystal structure, void volume, grain boundaries and material interface mismatch, which becomes more significant at smaller scales. The formation of copper (Cu) ...