This latest feature article by Dr Zoe Barber from the University of Cambridge, UK describes recent advances in thin film deposition technology. 

Thin film deposition offers the potential for constructing materials and heterostructures with extremely precise control. The last two decades have seen a vast improvement in the range of materials that can be deposited, the complexity of the thin films that are possible and the reproducibility of film deposition. Advances in the understanding and control of film deposition have come about through the development of deposition techniques. 

This review touches upon some of the recent developments in thin film technology which have contributed to the remarkable progress in this rapidly expanding field. 

With the methods and applications spanning many disciplines, these techniques are set to have a major impact in fields from medicine and health care, through computing and communications, to energy generation and conservation, manufacturing and transport.