Effect of Annealed (0001) α-Al_2O_3 Surfaces on Heteroepitaxial Growth of Silver Nanoparticles

• Authors: A. Al-Mohammad
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The effect of annealed (0001) α -Al_2O_3 surfaces on heteroepitaxial growth of silver nanoparticles were analysed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, transmission electron microscope and selected area electron diffraction. Ag nanoparticles were deposited on 1× 1 stoichiometric and reconstructed (111)Al//(0001) α -Al_2O_3 with the Knudsen cell. The maximum cluster density method and the Lifethenz theory of Van der Waals energy were used to investigate the Ag//(0001)α -Al_2O_3 interface parameters. The growth modes, lattice parameters, nanoparticle forms and sizes are strongly dependent on the substrate surface structures. Initially, three-dimensional islands of Ag nanoparticles grow on both kinds of surfaces with partial hexagonal shapes. Ag nanoparticles on stoichiometric surface create the (111)Ag//(0001)α -Al_2O_3 interface without any preferred epitaxial direction. On this surface, Gaussian distribution is characteristic of an atom-by-atom growth mode with density of Ag nanoparticles lower than saturation density while a coalescence growth mode appears due to binary collisions between Ag nanoparticles accompanied by a liquid-like behaviour after saturation density. In case of reconstruction substrates, the epitaxial relationships between Ag nanoparticles and the surface are formed (111)Ag//(0001)α -Al_2O_3, 〈01\bar(1)〉Ag//[12\bar(3)0]α -Al_2O_3 or 〈01\bar(1)〉Ag//[1\bar(1)00]α-Al_2O_3. The Ag nanoparticles make rotation with angles between ± 6° around the epitaxial orientations 〈1\bar(1)00〉 or 〈12\bar(3)0〉. Only the atom-by-atom growth mode were found at all Ag nanoparticles growth processes.

Keywords

EN

68.55.-a; 81.15.Aa; 61.05.jh; 61.46.Df

Discipline

• 61.05.jh: Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED)
• 81.15.Aa: Theory and models of film growth
• 61.46.Df: Structure of nanocrystals and nanoparticles ("colloidal" quantum dots but not gate-isolated embedded quantum dots)
• 68.55.-a: Thin film structure and morphology(for methods of thin film deposition, film growth and epitaxy, see 81.15.-z)

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 115
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 679-684

Dates

published

2009-03

received

2008-03-27

(unknown)

2008-09-18

Contributors

author

A. Al-Mohammad

• Nano-materials Labs, Physics Department, Atomic Energy Commission of Syria, P.O. Box 6091, Damascus, Syria

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.115.679