Substrate (materials science)
Substrate is a term used in materials science to describe the base material on which processing is conducted to produce new film or layers of material such as deposited coatings.
A typical substrate might be a metal, onto which a coating might be deposited by any of the following processes:
In optics, glass may be used as a substrate for an optical coating—either an antireflection coating to reduce reflection, or a mirror coating to enhance it.
A substrate may be also an engineered surface where an unintended or natural process occurs, like in:
