Control of Separation and Diameter of Ag Nanorods through Self-organized Seeds

Paul R Elliott; Stephen P Stagon; Hanchen Huang

doi:10.1038/srep16826

Control of Separation and Diameter of Ag Nanorods through Self-organized Seeds

Sci Rep. 2015 Nov 20:5:16826. doi: 10.1038/srep16826.

Authors

Paul R Elliott^{1

2}, Stephen P Stagon³, Hanchen Huang²

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
² Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³ Mechanical Engineering, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA.

Abstract

This paper proposes a mechanism of controlling the diameter and separation of metallic nanorods from physical vapor deposition through self-organized seeds and experimentally demonstrates the feasibility using Ag as the prototype metal, In as the seed, and Si the substrate. Being non-wetting on Si substrates, deposited In atoms self-organize into islands. Subsequently deposited Ag atoms attach to In islands, rather than to Si substrates, due to preferential bonding and geometrical shadowing. The experimental results show that self-organized In seeds of 5 nm nominal thickness give rise to the best separation and the smallest diameter of Ag nanorods.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.