Solid-state dewetting instability in thermally-stable nanocrystalline binary alloys

Abstract

Practical applications of nanocrystalline metallic thin films are often limited by instabilities. In addition to grain growth, the thin film itself can become unstable and collapse into islands through solid-state dewetting. Selective alloying can improve nanocrystalline stability, but the impact of this approach on dewetting is not clear. In this study, two alloys that exhibit nanocrystalline thermal stability as ball milled powders are evaluated as thin films. While both alloys demonstrated dewetting behavior following annealing, the severity decreased in more dilute compositions. Ultimately, a balance may be struck between nanocrystalline stability and thin film structural stability by tuning dopant concentration.

Formation of nanoflowers: Au and Ni silicide cores surrounded by SiOx branches

“…The research of thin film dewetting has been extended to bilayers and multilayers for the synthesis of multicomponent nanoparticles [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], like alloyed AuNi and AuAg nanoparticles produced by the solid-state dewetting of bilayers [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Apart from Au, both Ni and Ag can also catalyze the growth of NWs based on the VLS mechanism [26][27][28], and Si NWs have been grown using alloyed AuAg nanoparticles [29].…”