Analysis of potential applications for the templated dewetting of metal thin films

Thin films have a high surface-to-volume ratio and are therefore usually morphologically unstable. They tend to reduce their surface energy through transport of mass by diffusion. As a result, they decay into a collection of small isolated islands or particles. This solid-state process, known as thin film dewetting, can be initiated by grooving at grain boundaries or triple junctions. Dewetting of thin films on topographically modified substrates has many interesting characteristics. It is a novel self-assembly process for the formation of well-ordered nanoparticle arrays with narrow size distributions and uniform crystallographic orientation. Potential applications of particles resulting from templated thin film solid-state dewetting are reviewed. Applications in patterned magnetic information-storage media, plasmon waveguides, and catalytic growth of ordered arrays of semiconducting nanowires and carbon nanotubes are discussed. Templated dewetting technology has not been fully developed, and technological barriers are identified for all of the commercial applications considered.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Frantzeskakis, Emmanouil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Carl V. Thompson, II.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33625

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33625