Plasmas for Surface Micro and Nanostructuring (a) +

Physics of Disordered Materials (b)

Topics (a)

1. Basics: plasma definition and parameters; Debye’s length; sheaths; ionis. degree; plasma oscillations; role of external magnetic (B) and electric (E) fields; dynamics of charged particles in non-uniform E and B fields; particle scattering; confinement, lateral, parallel; guiding center approx.; mirror effect

2. Plasma assisted physical vapour deposition (PAPVD) techniques

3. Plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) techniques

4. Physical mechanisms of sputtering; dc-sputtering, rf-sputtering, polarised sputtering, magnetron sputtering, unbalanced sputtering, closed field magnetron sputtering

5. Pulsed laser ablation – deposition: physics and technology

6. Deposition parameters vs microstructure evolution in thin films: comparison between plasma-assisted and non plasma-assisted techniques

7. Thermodynamic and kinetic models of film nucleation and growth

Topics (b)

1. structural order; kinds of disorder; ordering rules; long range order parameters
2. the glass transition; glass forming ability (GFA) criteria;
3. physical mechanisms of structural modification upon energetic particle bombardment:
• electrons: RCS
• ions (elastic regime): linear versus dense collision cascade    
• microscopic analysis of the space-time evolution of a collision cascade
• GFA in irradiated materials: interpretative and predictive criteria
4. experimental techniques for the analysis of structural disorder: (a), elements of scattering theory; scattering from structurally disordered materials; (b), X-ray absorption spectroscopies: EXAFS; XANES; (c), vibrational spectroscopies: IR absorption and Raman scattering
5. (a), short range order (CSRO; TSRO); (b), medium range order (MRO); (c), atomic clusters; fullerene; hollow diamonds
6. nanocrystalline materials; structure and role of the interfaces; nanoglasses; synthesis of nanostructured materials via irradiation; nanostructured material response to irradiation
7. quasicrystals: discovery, definition, aperiodic and quasi-periodic lattices; real quasicrystals; nano-quasicrystals; quasicrystal-amorphous and the reverse transition
8. Transport in heavily disordered materials: the Anderson-Mott localization; historical introduction; conducting vs localized electrons; the metal-insulator transition; localization of light: from ballistic to diffusive transport to Anderson localization; localization and enhanced transport in quasicrystals
9. modelling disordered structures: percolation, percolation probability and threshold; fractal geometry; diffusion limited aggregation; random interface growth; random close packing; anomalous transport properties of glasses at intermediate temperatures: excess specific heat, boson peak; gels versus glasses

Every year will be selected either section 6, or section 7; either section 8, or section 9.

The exam consists in an oral discussion on some of the topics listed in the Course program and displayed along the Lectures