Abstract: A method for depositing a coating layer on at least a part of a surface of a substrate is described. The method includes supplying a coating substance to at least part of a surface of a substrate. The substrate is subjected to a relative movement with respect to a source of the coating substance. The surface tension of the coating substance is modified, at least locally, at least part of the time while the at least part of the substrate is subjected to the movement. A thickness of the coating layer is influenced by modifying the surface tension of the coating substance.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for producing a patterned thin film on a substrate. The method comprises the spatially and possibly also temporally modulation of nucleation modes of film growth during the growth of patterned thin films. The nucleation modes are modulated between no or substantially no nucleation, 2D nucleation, and 3D nucleation. The modulation is obtained by adjusting the surface treatment spatially applied over regions of the substrate, the growth conditions for the thin film materials used, and/or the specific thin film materials used. The growth conditions typically comprise the substrate temperature and the deposition flux. The modulation allows for spatially varying the interaction between the substrate material and the thin film materials deposited.