Surface Relaxation of High-Aspect-Ratio Nanostructures: Theory and Experiments

MARCOS F. CASTEZ; PAULA C. DOS SANTOS CLARO; PATRICIA L. SCHILARDI; GUSTAVO ANDREASEN; ROBERTO C. SALVAREZZA

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2010 vol. 114 p. 4603 - 4610

1932-7447

We discuss some characteristic phenomena that take place when high-aspect-ratio metallic  nanopatterns decay by surface diffusion. We compare results obtained by means of a  continuous 2D model, a kinetic 3D Monte Carlo model, and also experimental results in  which nanostructured Au surfaces decay during an annealing. In all of these cases, we found  structures that are very stable against surface diffusion currents in which the surface area is  much higher than the one associated with a compact material. According to our models, such  structures usually are complex surfaces exhibing voids, tunnels, channels, etc., and they are  very different from the compact shapes expected after the annealing of low-aspect-ratio  metallic nanopatterns.