Growth behavior and surface morphology of Ag rough thin films deposited on silicone oil surfaces

Buckle morphologies of wedge-shaped Fe films quenched by silicone oil during deposition

“…According to the previous studies [13,14], the temperature of the silicone oil would increase slightly during deposition owing to the heat radiation from the sputtering source and the bombardment of the depositing atoms. The increased temperature of the Fe film sample detected by a thermocouple in our experiment was about 10 K, and changed with the sputtering power and deposition time.…”

Characteristic mechanical properties and complex ordered structures in metal films on liquid substrates

“…The metal film systems deposited on soft polymer substrates have also been of great interest in the past years [3,4] . Because the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the polymer substrate and the film is quite large, characteristic ordered structures at the nanometer scale are frequently observed, which can be well controlled and tuned by changing the experimental parameters such as the substrate temperature, film thickness, etc.In the last decade, an experimental group in Zhejiang University attempted to use liquid surfaces as the film substrates, and has successfully fabricated various metal film systems [5][6][7][8][9][10] . The experimental results showed that the metal atoms, atomic clusters, ramified aggregates and even a whole film piece can motion freely on the liquid surfaces, indicating that the interaction between the solid films and the liquid substrates in the tangent direction is very small [5] , which is quite different from the films on solid and polymer substrates [1][2][3][4] .…”

“…The film systems on liquid substrates always possess special growth mechanisms, distinctive microstructures and anomalous physical properties. In addition, they also generally exhibit large varieties of characteristic surface morphologies and structures such as chrysanthemum-shaped wrinkles in silver films [6] , parallel sinusoidal cracks in nickel films [7] , band-shaped structures composed of rectangular domains in metal (including iron, aluminum and gold) films [8][9][10] , large spatially molecular organic crystals in thin liquid films [11] , etc.The band-shaped structures in iron, aluminum and gold film systems are a totally new form of ordered patterns, which have never been observed in the film systems on solid and polymer substrates. Furthermore, the fact that a same type of ordered structures can form in various thin films sufficiently indicates that these structures are not closely dependent on the film materials, but may be related to the special physical system of a stiff solid film on a mobile liquid layer.…”

“…In the last decade, an experimental group in Zhejiang University attempted to use liquid surfaces as the film substrates, and has successfully fabricated various metal film systems [5][6][7][8][9][10] . The experimental results showed that the metal atoms, atomic clusters, ramified aggregates and even a whole film piece can motion freely on the liquid surfaces, indicating that the interaction between the solid films and the liquid substrates in the tangent direction is very small [5] , which is quite different from the films on solid and polymer substrates [1][2][3][4] .…”

“…The film systems on liquid substrates always possess special growth mechanisms, distinctive microstructures and anomalous physical properties. In addition, they also generally exhibit large varieties of characteristic surface morphologies and structures such as chrysanthemum-shaped wrinkles in silver films [6] , parallel sinusoidal cracks in nickel films [7] , band-shaped structures composed of rectangular domains in metal (including iron, aluminum and gold) films [8][9][10] , large spatially molecular organic crystals in thin liquid films [11] , etc.…”