May 2024 Vacuum Deposition Blog
To learn more about our company's Vacuum Deposition services, click here.

Scroll down for more content!

May 13, 2024
New Study Reveals Revolutionary Thin Film Deposition Process for Tin Selenide-Based Materials  
In a recent study researchers revealed the discovery of a new thin film deposition process for tin selenide-based materials. The new method uses the metal-organic chemical deposition (MOCVD) method, which enabled thin film deposition on large wafer surfaces at a reasonably low temperature of 200°C. Through this cutting-edge process researchers were able to achieve exceptional precision and scalability. Thanks to the MOCVD technique the team of researchers were able to create tin selenide materials SnSe2 and SnSe, both with uniform thickness on just a few nanometers on wafer units. To achieve low temperature deposition, the scientists strategically separated the temperature sections for ligand decomposition and thin film deposition. They were able to control the deposition process with great precision by adjusting the ratio of tin and selenium precursors as well as the flow rate of the Aragon gas carrying the precursor. The result was high quality thin films with excellent crystallinity, regular alignment, and controlled phase and thickness. Regardless of substrate, the process allowed the uniform deposition of thin films at a low temperature of about 200°C. This demonstrates the method’s potential for various electronics applications on a large scale. Learn more here. 

May 31, 2024
Accident Leads to Enhanced Energy Storage on Battery-Like Supercapacitors  
Researchers at Cambridge University accidentally discovered a way to enhance the energy storage on battery like supercapacitors. Interestingly, the scientists discovered that a more disorganized chemical structure on the carbon electrodes inside supercapacitors led to enhanced energy storage capacity. Supercapacitors have the ability to store energy like a battery and they can power up almost instantly and last for millions of cycles. The only problem was that supercapacitors had vastly lower energy storage capacity. This is why the new discovery holds such great potential. When the scientists analyzed the porous electrodes using computer modeling, they discovered that more disorganized molecules could hold more energy. "We want to look at new ways of making these materials, to see how far messiness can take you in terms of improving energy storage," said lead researcher Alex Forse. Researcher Xinyu Liu further noted that  "Using … spectroscopy, we found that energy storage capacity correlates with how disordered the materials are — the more disordered materials can store more energy," With that in mind, if the energy density of a supercapacitor can increase even by a small amount, it could mean a massive gain for the technology especially taking into account its existing benefits. Learn more about this topic here.