Developing cost-effective manufacturing processes for nano-engineered coatings

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Thin film coatings are often applied to manufactured components to enhance their functional characteristics, improving scratch resistance, tailoring optical response, or augmenting catalytic activity. Traditionally the underlying component performs the primary function, while the dense slab-like coating protects or enhances that functionality. Recent advances in the field of nanotechnology have prompted a shift in this design paradigm toward using structured thin films to provide core functionality where the underlying component now acts simply as a carrier for the nano-engineered coating. Nano-engineered coatings have complicated internal structure at the atomic scale, and exhibit exceptional characteristics not available in traditional materials. While research has demonstrated a wide range of beneficial properties of nano-engineered coating materials,