Templated Solid-state Dewetting of Single-crystal Films

초록

Thin solid films are usually deposited under thermodynamically metastable or unstable conditions, so that they often dewet to form an array of isolated particles when heated to sufficiently high temperatures. Much attention has been paid to the potential application of dewetting to produce catalysts and optical resonators. Because of crystallographic and geometric constraints, dewetting of pre-patterned single-crystal films is templated to produce well-ordered regular structures. In this talk, I will first introduce the mechanisms underlying the regular morphological evolution observed during dewetting of single-crystal films. Then, I will present results showing that ordered arrays of micro- and nanoscale features can be fabricated with control over their shapes and sizes via solid-state dewetting of patches patterned from single-crystal films. The physical origins underlying the pattern formation will be discussed with an emphasis on the effects of surface energy anisotropy and oxygen adsorption.