薄膜材料是指厚度介于单原子到几毫米间的薄金属或有机物层。电子半导体功能器件和光学镀膜是薄膜技术的主要应用。

一个很为人们熟知的表面技术的应用是家用的镜子：为了形成反射表面在镜子的背面常常镀上一层金属，镀银操作广泛应用于镜子的制作，而低于一个纳米的极薄的镀层常常用来制作双面镜。

当光学用薄膜材料（例如减反射膜消反射膜等）由数个不同厚度不同反射率的薄层复合而成时，他们的光学性能可以得到加强。相似结构的由不同金属薄层组成的周期性排列的薄膜会形成所谓的超晶格结果。在超晶格结构中，电子的运动被限制在二维空间中而不能在三维空间中运动于是产生了量子阱效应。

A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer (monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many applications. A familiar example is the household mirror, which typically has a thin metal coating on the back of a sheet of glass to form a reflective interface. The process of silvering was once commonly used to produce mirrors, while more recently the metal layer is deposited using techniques such as sputtering. Advances in thin film deposition techniques during the 20th century have enabled a wide range of technological breakthroughs in areas such as magnetic recording media, electronic semiconductor devices, LEDs, optical coatings (such as antireflective coatings), hard coatings on cutting tools, and for both energy generation (e.g. thin film solar cells) and storage (thin-film batteries). It is also being applied to pharmaceuticals, via thin-film drug delivery.