Cobalt Nanoparticle Arrays made by Templated Solid‐State Dewetting

Self‐assembled cobalt particle arrays are formed by annealing, which cause agglomeration (dewetting) of thin Co films on oxidized silicon substrates that are topographically prepatterned with an array of 200‐nm‐period pits. The Co nanoparticle size and uniformity are related to the initial film thickness, annealing temperature, and template geometry. One particle per 200‐nm‐period pit is formed from a 15‐nm film annealed at 850 °C; on a smooth substrate, the same annealing process forms particles with an average interparticle distance of 200 nm. Laser annealing enables templated dewetting of 5‐nm‐thick films to give one particle per pit. Although the as‐deposited films exhibit a mixture of hexagonal close‐packed and face‐centered cubic (fcc) phases, the ordered cobalt particles are predominantly twinned fcc crystals with weak magnetic anisotropy. Templated dewetting is shown to provide a method for forming arrays of nanoparticles with well‐controlled sizes and positions.     

Templated Solid‐State Dewetting of Thin Silicon Films

Thin film dewetting can be efficiently exploited for the implementation of functionalized surfaces over very large scales. Although the formation of sub‐micrometer sized crystals via solid‐state dewetting represents a viable method for the fabrication of quantum dots and optical meta‐surfaces, there are several limitations related to the intrinsic features of dewetting in a crystalline medium. Disordered spatial organization, size, and shape fluctuations are relevant issues not properly addressed so far. This study reports on the deterministic nucleation and precise positioning of Si‐ and SiGe‐based nanocrystals by templated solid‐state dewetting of thin silicon films. The dewetting dynamics is guided by pattern size and shape taking full control over number, size, shape, and relative position of the particles (islands dimensions and relative distances are in the hundreds nm range and fluctuate ≈11% for the volumes and ≈5% for the positioning).