Interplay between metal nanoparticles and dielectric spacing layers during the growth of Au/Si3N4 multilayers

Abstract

Influence of catalytic gold and silver metal nanoparticles on structural, optical, and vibrational properties of silicon nanowires synthesized by metal-assisted chemical etching J. Appl. Phys. 112, 073509 (2012); 10.1063/1.4757009Synthesis of nanoparticles Ni0.55Zn0.45Fe2O4 by novel precursor method showing enhanced resistivity AIP Conf. thin films by vapor deposition is tracked in a simple, unconventional and nondestructive way by probing the infrared response of the dielectric matrix. Si 3 N 4 crystallization occurs as a consequence of the presence of Au nanostructures. The average Si 3 N 4 crystalline order is improved upon increasing the thickness t Au of deposited Au per bilayer. On the contrary, crystalline order is destroyed when the number n of bilayers overcomes a threshold value that varies with t. Additional information provided by conventional measurements ͑x-ray diffraction, visible absorption spectroscopy͒ and by transmission electron microscopy observations suggests that the Si 3 N 4 atomic ordering results from seed-induced crystallization on the Au͑111͒ planes. Disordering is tentatively attributed to roughness accumulation upon stacking, whose magnitude is ruled by the roughness of the first deposited Au granular layer.

Effects of Au layer thickness and number of bilayers on the properties of Au/ZnO multilayers

“…In Au/Si 3 N 4 stacks with a Si 3 N 4 thickness similar to the one of ZnO, the transition from continuous Au to Au NPs is observed provided t Au ¼ 3 nm. 6 Note also that for t Au ¼ 1.6 nm, the diameter D of Au NPs is about 6.5 nm when embedded in Si 3 N 4 whereas for t Au ¼ 1.8 nm, D is about 4 nm when embedded in ZnO. The key is in the elastic properties of the matrix and its possible structural modification: (1) Si 3 N 4 is not as elastic as ZnO, (2) it is amorphous in the asdeposited state and crystallizes under Au deposition, 6 whereas ZnO is already in a crystalline state.…”

“…Such an increase has already been seen for Au in cermets. 6 Overtones in ZnO have been calculated and their presence confirmed mainly by Raman spectroscopy. 25,28,29 The contribution at 416 cm À1 is close to the E1 (TO) mode, actually slightly larger, which corresponds to atoms moving perpendicular to the c axis of the wurtzite structure (Ref.…”

“…Recently, we had focused our interest on metal/ Si 3 N 4 multilayers showing the role of parameters such as the heat of formation of metal nitrides, the metal film thickness, t metal , and the number of bilayers, n. 2 As in previous works, [3][4][5] these two later parameters play an important role on the transition between continuous and discontinuous layer via roughness accumulation along the growth direction. 6 In this work, we changed the insulating nitride, Si 3 N 4 , to a semiconductor oxide, ZnO. In the last 5-10 years, ZnO has received interest in various fields (Ref.…”

Synthesis of tunable plasmonic metal-ceramic nanocomposite thin films by temporally modulated sputtered fluxes

“…Metal-dielectric nanocomposites are commonly synthesized in the form of thin films using atom-by-atom vapor deposition in which thermodynamics, kinetics, and temporal profile of the deposition flux can be used to manipulate film growth and control film microstructure and morphology [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . For instance, when the noble metal and dielectric material film forming species are deposited simultaneously, the low mutual solubility leads to precipitation of randomly dispersed metal nanoparticles with a relatively broad size distribution 22,23 .…”