In this chapter, we study an interfacial phenomenon between liquid metals and ceramic substrates. Therefore, investigation of these phenomena is of great importance not only in technological applications but also in fundamental understanding of physical behavior of the adhesion between two different materials as far as their electrical structures and physiochemical properties are concerned. Moreover, adhesion energy is interpreted thermodynamically by the interfacial interactions and the nature of bonding between liquid metal and ceramic material. The adhesion energy in metal/ceramic systems is determined by using an electro-acoustical model based on the propagation of the acoustic wave in the interface and strongly depends on the electric properties of combination.
Part of the book: Liquid Metals
The increasing development of technologies based on the thin films, imposed a high quality of these films. The crucial importance for all applications of thin films is related to the stability of their physical and morphological properties. Therefore, to optimize the performances of the thin films it is recommended to study carefully all their parameters in order to enhance the elaborated films. With this intention, various characterizations methods were developed and carried out to study the different qualities of thin films. In this chapter, we take an interest to the study of the characteristics of some binary semiconductors thin films elaborated by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, and which are destined for solar cells applications. Several used characterizations techniques to the determination of the thin films properties will be given; namely: X-rays diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy), Hall effect and spectrophotometry will be discussed in detail.
Part of the book: Thin Films Photovoltaics