| Abstract |
| Co nanoparticles on silica substrates were fabricated by inducing a thin-film dewetting through two different processes-furnace annealing and pulsed-laser annealing. The effects of annealing temperature, film thickness and laser energy density on dewetting morphology and mechanism were investigated. Co thin-films with thicknesses between 3 to 15 nm were deposited using ion-beam sputtering, and then, in order to induce dewetting, thermally annealed in furnace at temperatures between 600 and 900℃. Some as-deposited films were irradiated using a Nd-YAG pulsed-laser of 266 nm wavelength to induce dewetting in liquid-state. Films annealed in furnace agglomerated to form nanoparticles above 700℃, and those average particle size and spacing were increased with an increase of film thickness. On the laser annealing process, above the energy density of 100 mJ/cm2, metal films were completely dewetted and the agglomerated particles exhibited greater size uniformity than those on the furnace annealing process. A detailed dewetting mechanism underlaying both processes were discussed. (Received January 7, 2009) |
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| Key Words |
| thin films, cobalt nanoparticles, dewetting, pulsed-Laser, annealing |
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