Coating of metallic surfaces is an important part of materials science. For instance, coatings can protect materials against corrosion, which is a fundamental aspect of sustainability and resource conservation. Furthermore, combinations of different materials - in so-called heterostructures - enable the development of modern electronic, optoelectronic and spintronic devices on the micro- and nanometre scale as a basis for green IT, the environmentally compatible information and communication technology.

For all these applications, chemical purity and smoothness of the surface or interface play an important role. Especially in optics and microelectronics, impurities and rough surfaces or interfaces can negatively influence the desired properties and lead to malfunctions. To avoid these problems as far as possible, production takes place in a vacuum and further manufacturing steps in special clean rooms. Chemical and structural quality are regularly examined after various process steps.

In this project, different material combinations are not only to be systematically analysed, but furthermore surface and interface effects are to be used in a targeted manner to even improve the application-relevant properties.

• Coating in ultra-high vacuum by sputter deposition
• Heating of the clean metal to temperatures of approx. 500-600°C
• Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) to analyse chemical purity
• Diffraction of low-energy electrons (LEED) to check the surface structure