Effects of Accumulated Energy on Nanoparticle Formation in Pulsed-Laser Dewetting of AgCu Thin Films

Abstract

Ag50Cu50 films were deposited on glass substrates by a sputtering system. Effects of accumulated energy on nanoparticle formation in pulse-laser dewetting of AgCu films were investigated. The results showed that the properties of the dewetted films were found to be dependent on the magnitude of the energy accumulated in the film. For a low energy accumulation, the two distinct nanoparticles had rice-shaped/Ag60Cu40 and hemispherical/Ag80Cu20. Moreover, the absorption spectra contained two peaks at 700 nm and 500 nm, respectively. By contrast, for a high energy accumulation, the nanoparticles had a consistent composition of Ag60Cu40, a mean diameter of 100 nm and a peak absorption wavelength of 550 nm. Overall, the results suggest that a higher Ag content of the induced nanoparticles causes a blue shift of the absorption spectrum, while a smaller particle size induces a red shift.

Silver Nanoparticle Arrays onto Glass Substrates Obtained by Solid-State Thermal Dewetting: A Morphological, Structural and Surface Chemical Study

“…Noble metallic nanoparticles (Au, Pt, Ag) (NPs) have attracted a great deal of attention due to their unique physical features and interesting electrochemical and mechanical properties [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In particular, their optical properties, which have been known since antiquity, have already proven a fraction of their potential, and further major discoveries should be expected in the future [2,[7][8][9].…”

“…However, in many emerging nanoelectronic and optoelectronic technologies and applications, such as nanophotonic devices, new-generation solar cells, magnetic recording, sensors, and plasmonics, patterning metallic nanoparticles onto a substrate surface is desired [1,13,[25][26][27][28][29], which, in the case of Ag NP colloidal solutions, the organization of the synthesized nanoparticles is difficult to control, and periodic arrays are challenging to realize [1,25,27]. In particular, the structure and properties of the metal nanostructures placed on nonmetal surfaces are of tremendous interest due to their potential use in different electronic, magnetic, and optical devices [30].…”

“…The original continuous film breaks apart into numerous particles in the same way as a water layer would on a hydrophobic surface, and this process is known as dewetting [25,28,41,[45][46][47][48]. The SSD process can be induced by thermal annealing [12,26,31,36,38,40,41,49], pulsed laser heating [1,4,39,50], combined thermal annealing and pulsed laser heating [27], ion beam irradiation [51][52][53][54], electron beam irradiation [55], and inductively coupled plasma discharge [56]. Nonetheless, thermal annealing is probably the simplest way to promote dewetting, particularly when working on large areas.…”

One-Step Synthesis of Ag–Cu Bimetallic Nanoparticles on p-Si Photoelectrodes for Solar-Driven CO2 Reduction

“…The diffractogram of Cu in Cu/p-Si shows a similar pattern, with peaks appearing at 2θ values of 43.5°, 50.7°, 74.14°, and 90.2°, corresponding to the (111), (200), (220), and (311) planes. , The two powders exhibit face-centered cubic (FCC) structures with a polycrystalline nature (broad XRD peaks; see Figure b). The pattern of the synthesized Ag 50 Cu 50 /p-Si powder contains the peaks of both pure metals (together with those of the support Si), showing a typical phase-separated crystalline structure. , These can be the pure Ag and Cu phases or some α (Ag-rich) and β (Cu-rich) phases (FCC α and β solid solutions can reach at high temperature a maximum solubility of 14.1 atom % Cu and 4.9 atom % Ag, respectively). A closer look at the region of the most intense peaks is shown in Figure b.…”

Laser-Assisted Tailored Patterning of Au Nanoparticles over an Inch-Sized Area: Implications for Large Aperture Meta-optics

“…Laser-induced dewetting of metal films has been actively investigated in the past. − The main body of previous studies is aimed at metal film laser-texturing for plasmonic coloring or focused on controlling a different virtue of nanoparticles (e.g., spectral transmission or reflection) rather than the fill-factor that is the relevant metric for the etching mask application of the present study. Importantly, most of them utilized pulsed lasers to control dewetting, where the effects of accumulated energy on nanoparticle formation were mostly investigated.…”