With the fast-growing request for miniaturized electronic components, in the last few decades deposition of nanometric, conformal ceramic, and metallic coatings has been a challenging scientific topic. Atomic layer epitaxy, more recently also known as atomic layer deposition, has proved to be a powerful and flexible deposition technique capable of growing many different oxide and nitride layers onto a wide range of substrates, ranging from metals to polymers. Apart from their potential as semiconductors and electronic materials, chemically stable and defect-free nanometric coatings offer many additional properties of industrial interest, such as wear and corrosion protection. Papers on the potential application of atomic layer deposition outside of microelectronics and semiconductors have known an exponential growth in the last decade and atomic layer deposition has shown the potential to protect substrates from corrosion with a comparable if not superior efficiency when compared to thicker organic or ceramic conventional coatings.
