Thin films as polycrystalline coatings are used in many different application areas ranging from biomedical coatings on medical implants to spray-coated paints on automotive steels, deposited films on electrodes in batteries or metallic contacts in semiconductors, and optical coatings on displays, to name a few.
As new applications for thin films emerge and existing applications become mainstream, the technology of deposition is always advancing, and the materials deposited are always being improved.