Investigation of self-assembly growth and thermal stability of Au nano-particles on atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 film

The self-assembly growth of Au nano-particles on atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) Al₂O₃ thin film has been achieved. And the self-assembly process and the thermal stability have been investigated.The results show that the ALD Al₂O₃ film is inclined to adsorb (3-Aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane (APTMS), which is in favor of self-assembly growth of Au nano-particles. The resulting Au nano-particles are mainly in the range of 5–8 nm with a density of nearly 4×10¹¹cm⁻². The annealing at 300   in N2 leads to an increase in the dimension of Au nano-particles, however, the good adsorption of APTMS and the chemical compositions of Au nano-particles are maintained. When the annealing temperature elevates to 450  , Au nano-particles exhibit severe agglomeration together with extreme nonuniformilty.