Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
7881631 Acta Materialia 2014 9 Pages PDF
Abstract
In this study, we deposited a 80 nm thick single crystalline Ni film on a sapphire substrate. Heat treatment of this film at 1000 °C followed by slow cooling resulted in the formation of faceted holes, star-like channel instabilities and faceted microwires. The ridges at the rims of faceted holes and channels exhibited a twinning orientation relationship with the rest of the film. A sub-nanometer-high hexagonal topography pattern on the surface of the unperturbed film was observed by atomic force microscopy. No such pattern was observed on the top facets of isolated Ni particles and hole ridges. We discuss the observed dewetting patterns in terms of the effects of Ni surface anisotropy and faceting on solid state dewetting. The hexagonal pattern on the surface of the unperturbed film was attributed to thermal stress relaxation in the film via dislocations glide. This work demonstrates that solid state dewetting of single crystalline metal films can be utilized for film patterning and for producing hierarchical surface topographies.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Materials Science Ceramics and Composites
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