Regularly arranged indium islands on glass/molybdenum substrates upon femtosecond laser and physical vapor deposition processing

A bottom-up approach is presented for the production of arrays of indium islands on a molybdenum layer on glass, which can serve as micro-sized precursors for indium compounds such as copper-indium-gallium-diselenide used in photovoltaics. Femtosecond laser ablation of glass and a subsequent deposition of a molybdenumfilm or direct laser processing of the molybdenumfilm both allow the preferential nucleation and growth of indium islands at the predefined locations in a following indium-based physical vapor deposition(PVD) process. A proper choice of laser and deposition parameters ensures the controlled growth of indium islands exclusively at the laser ablated spots. Based on a statistical analysis, these results are compared to the non-structured molybdenumsurface, leading to randomly grown indium islands after PVD

Growth and shape of indium islands on molybdenum at micro-roughened spots created by femtosecond laser pulses

Indium islands on molybdenum coated glass can be grown in ordered arrays by surface structuring using a femtosecond laser. The effect of varying the molybdenum coated glass substrate temperature and the indium deposition rate on island areal density, volume and geometry is investigated and evaluated in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process. The joined impact of growth conditions and spacing of the femtosecond laser structured spots on the arrangement and morphology of indium islands is demonstrated. The results yield a deeper understanding of the island growth and its precise adjustment to industrial requirements, which is indispensable for a technological application of such structures at a high throughput, for instance as precursors for the preparation of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 micro concentrator solar cells

New Developments in Chemical Engineering for the Production of Drug Substances

The pharmaceutical industry is moving towards a profitability gap between increasing costs and decreasing prices. Finally, management has understood that mergers and acquisitions, high throughput screening, and biotechnology alone will not save the companies' earnings. Therefore, classical approaches like the optimization of production technologies for drug substances, that might help to increase profitability, are receiving increasing attention. This paper shows how the combination of innovative components will guide the way to very efficient and cost-effective production. The first component is the design and manufacturing of production facilities. The second component is a process streamlining of the production process. The key technologies discussed here are process control and miniplant technology. For these technologies a brief outlook on future trends is given