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Epitaxial Ag(001) grown on MgO(001) and TiN(001): Twinning, surface morphology, and electron surface scatteringThe influence of Ti seed layers on the structure of self-organized Ag nanodots, obtained with a Ti seed-layer-assisted thermal agglomeration method, has been investigated. The samples were grown on MgO(001) single crystal substrates by RF magnetron sputter deposition. The samples were deposited at room temperature and post-annealed at 350 C for 4 h while maintaining the chamber vacuum conditions. The results of atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations indicated that the insertion of the Ti seed layer (0.6-5.0 nm) between the MgO substrate and Ag layer promotes the agglomeration process, forming the nanodot array. Comparisons between the AFM images revealed that the size of the Ag nanodots was increased with an increase in the Ti seed layer thickness. The atomic concentration of the film surface was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS result suggested that the nanodot surface mainly consisted of Ag. Moreover, X-ray diffraction results proved that the initial deposition of the Ti seed layer (0.6-5.0 nm) onto MgO(001) prior to the Ag deposition yielded high-quality fcc-Ag(001) oriented epitaxial nanodots. The optical absorbance spectra of the fabricated Ag nanodots with various Ti seed layer thicknesses were obtained in the visible light range. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

The influence of 1.0-5.0-nm-thick Ti and Fe seed layers on self-organized Ag nanostructures grown on MgO(001) substrates after annealing was investigated and compared. Atomic force microscopy results indicated that the insertion of Ti and Fe seed layers between the substrate and Ag promoted thermal agglomeration, thereby resulting in the formation of a nanodot array. Moreover, the size and spacing of the Ag/Ti and Ag/Fe nanodots changed significantly and irregularly, respectively, with increasing thickness of the seed layers. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the insertion of the Ti seed layer promoted epitaxial growth of Ag nanodots; Ag/Fe nanodots, in contrast, grew non-epitaxially. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the differences between the effects of the Ti and Fe seed layers are mainly due to the thermal equilibrium state between the seed layer elements and Ag.

We analyzed the effect of a Ti seed layer on the agglomeration of Ag films grown on MgO(110) substrates. The samples were deposited at room temperature and post-annealed at 350 °C for 4 h. Atomic force microscopy observations indicated that the insertion of the Ti seed layer between the substrate and Ag promoted the agglomeration, leading to nanorod formation. X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the Ag/Ti film grown on MgO(110) substrate yielded fcc-Ag(110)-oriented epitaxial nanorods. Additionally, typical optical absorbance spectra of the Ag nanorods were obtained in the Ag/Ti films.

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