Publication date: Available online 9 October 2017
Source:Thin Solid Films
Author(s): Krishna Kumar, P. Swaminathan
We report on the effect of added silver, on the solid state dewetting behavior of copper thin films grown by thermal evaporation. The films were annealed under different conditions, conventional furnace annealing in air and argon, and rapid thermal annealing in nitrogen. Our results show that for all annealing conditions, addition of silver to copper films suppresses the dewetting when compared to pure copper films. Fully dewet silver–copper films produce roughly spherical nanoparticles, with the amount of silver controlling the particle areal density and size distribution. This provides an additional parameter for controlled synthesis of nanoparticles by a bottom–up approach.
Source:Thin Solid Films
Author(s): Krishna Kumar, P. Swaminathan