Fabrication of porous and pillar-shaped Mg by magnetron sputtering

We report on the synthesis of nanostructured Mg platelets with nanopores and Mg pillars by magnetron sputtering techniques under different deposition conditions. By varying deposition parameters, the morphology of Mg varied from fully dense epitaxial films to polycrystalline nanoporous structures containing hexagonal platelets. The influence of layer thickness, deposition rate, incidence angle and mode of deposition (DC vs. RF sputtering) on morphology of Mg was investigated. Mg nanopillars were formed via glancing angle deposition technique. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation was performed to examine the influence of surface diffusion on morphology of Mg films.