Comparison of magnetron sputtering and gas aggregation nanoparticle source used for fabrication of silver nanoparticle films

Magnetron sputtering and gas aggregation sources are commonly used techniques for the preparation of metallic nanoparticles. In this study we compare both of these techniques used for the production of thin Ag nanoparticle films from the point of view of their morphology, topography and optical properties in dependence on the deposition time and substrate material. It is shown that in the case of sputter deposition, the morphology and optical properties of prepared films are dependent on the substrate material and deposition time and the resulting films are smooth with root-mean-square roughness 2 nm. By contrast, films produced using gas aggregation source are considerably rougher (root-mean-square roughness 12 nm) and consist of individual Ag nanoparticles. The deposition time affects in this case only the amount of nanoparticles on the surface and intensity of an anomalous absorption peak.