Analysis of potential applications for the templated dewetting of metal thin films

Abstract

Thin films have a high surface-to-volume ratio and are therefore usually morphologically unstable. They tend to reduce their surface energy through transport of mass by diffusion. As a result, they decay into a collection of small isolated islands or particles. This solid-state process, known as thin film dewetting, can be initiated by grooving at grain boundaries or triple junctions. Dewetting of thin films on topographically modified substrates has many interesting characteristics. It is a novel self-assembly process for the formation of well-ordered nanoparticle arrays with narrow size distributions and uniform crystallographic orientation. Potential applications of particles resulting from templated thin film solid-state dewetting are reviewed. Applications in patterned magnetic information-storage media, plasmon waveguides, and catalytic growth of ordered arrays of semiconducting nanowires and carbon nanotubes are discussed. Templated dewetting technology has not been fully developed, and technological barriers are identified for all of the commercial applications considered.

(cont.) However, the self-assembly characteristics of templated dewetting may ultimately offer advantages in the manufacture of both patterned media and catalytic nanomaterial growth technologies.