Glancing angle sputter deposited nanostructures on rotating substrates: Experiments and simulations

Abstract

Ordered arrays of Si nanorods and nanospirals have been produced by ion beam sputter glancing angle deposition of Si on rotating substrates. The substrates were prepatterned with honeycomb and hexagonal-closed-packed arranged Au dots obtained by nanosphere lithography. The effects of template type, substrate rotational speed, height of the artificial Au seeds, and deposition angle of the incident flux on the growth of the Si nanostructures is examined. Especially for the deposition of Si on honeycomb templates at different deposition angles, it is shown that the structure of the growing film changes drastically. A continuous film with honeycomblike arranged hillocks on top is deposited at normal incidence. With increased , the structure shifts to almost dense films with a mesh of hexagonally arranged pores ͑ = 70°͒. Finally, separated rodlike structures with triangular cross section are obtained under glancing angle conditions ͑ = 85°͒. In addition, the structural evolution of the glancing angle deposited Si films is compared with oblique angle deposition three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, the effects of surface diffusion on the growth of spiral Si nanostructures on nontemplated substrates in experiment and simulation are compared and discussed.

Tilt angle control of nanocolumns grown by glancing angle sputtering at variable argon pressures

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Even though e-beam or resistively heated evaporation sources are commonly used for this purpose due to their high directionality, sputtering has also been used to obtain nanostructured systems by GLAD. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] In this case, the sputtering gas pressure, P g , is obviously a crucial parameter in the formation of the columnar structures, trying to be minimized in order to reduce the number of collisions of the sputtered atoms in the gas phase and therefore to increase the directionality of the sputtered material toward the substrate. P g determines the mean free path, , of the vapor flux that leaves the target in their way to the substrate.…”

Theoretical and experimental characterization of TiO2 thin films deposited at oblique angles

“…Numerical models have provided further insight into the growing mechanisms leading to the formation of columnar structures, describing the relation between  and , as well as between  and d [30][31][32]. In ref.…”

“…In that reference, the directionality of the deposition flux together with the surface shadowing mechanism was found responsible for the formation and growth of columns. Moreover, to account for the importance of the substrate temperature and the diffusion rates, surface relaxation was introduced via thermal activation in a hopping mechanism with an Arrenius-type temperature dependence [30][31][32][34][35]. The influence of the film temperature, T, on the film growth was explained by the so-called Structure Zone Model (SZM) [36].…”

Large artificial anisotropic growth rate in on-lattice simulation of obliquely deposited nanostructures

“…for growth evolution of thick film). Various versions of on-lattice simulation of OAD has been developed and used by different research groups 9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] .…”