Electrodeposition on nanostrucured materials

SANTOS CLARO, P CECILIA DOS; F CASTEZ,; P. L. SCHILARDI; N. LUQUE; E P M LEIVA; C SALVAREZZA, R

New London

Congreso; Gordon Research Conference on Electrodeposition; 2008

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Times-Roman; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:AdvTTR; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:ES-TRAD; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> The preparation of metal and semiconductor nanostructures with defined size and spatial order on metal or semiconductor surfaces is a key point in many fields of nanotechnology .Metal electrodeposition is a well known technique involving relatively low cost equipment, and it is currently used in many technological applications. In contrast to metal electrodeposition on well defined substrates, our knowledge of this process on nanopatterned electrodes (50 nm range) is rather limited. Important questions that should be addressed in relation to electrodeposition on nanostructured electrodes are: (1) Do the template nanostructures act as preferred sites for nucleation? (2) Is it possible to induce instantaneous nucleation on the template? (3) Can the size of the crystal be controlled in the nanoscale range of the template pattern by the applied potential? (4) How stable are the electrodeposited nanostructures? These questions are important because they are related to the spatial order, size, narrow size distribution and stability of the nanostructures. In this work we have studied silver electrodeposition on a gold template with ordered arrays of nanocavities. This nanocavities act as nanoreactors where nucleation starts to form silver nanocrystals. However, further addition of small amounts of material produces self-organization to a ripple structure that coarsens with time. We demonstrate that the formation of rippled structures is also a general phenomenon when metals, alloys and semiconductors are electrodeposited on ordered arrays of surface defects such as nanocavities. We also show that anisotropic surface diffusion induced by substrate details accounts for the formation of well-ordered ripples extending over several microns.