Phonons in sapphire Al2O3 substrate for ZnO and GaN

Determination of growth regimes of Pd nanostructures on c-plane sapphire by the control of deposition amount at different annealing temperatures

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable physical, optical and catalytic properties have a wide range of applications including various optoelectronics, sensors and fuel cells. In this paper, we demonstrate the evolution of various physical properties, configurations, size and density of palladium (Pd) nanostructures on sapphire(Al₂O₃) (0001) by the systematic control of deposition amount (DA) at distinct annealing temperatures. The transformation of the deposited thin films into various Pd NPs is achieved by the dewetting of the thin film by means of surface diffusion, nucleation, Volmer-Weber growth and surface energy minimization mechanism. Depending on the evolution of size, density and configuration, five distinctive regimes of Pd nanostructures are demonstrated: (i) nucleation and evolution of small NPs between 1 and 3 nm, (ii) medium NPs with the dominating vertical growth between 5 and 20 nm, (iii) laterally expanded large NPs between 30 and 40 nm, (iv) irregular coalesced Pd NPs between 50 and 80 nm and (v) voids evolution between 100 and 200 nm. Initial film thickness and annealing temperature play major roles on the dewetting process and the resulting Pd nanostructures are notably distinguished. The fabricated Pd nanostructures influence the lattice vibration modes of sapphire(0001) such as gradual decrement in the intensity and left-shift of the peak position with increased surface coverage. In addition, the optical properties are studied by UV-VIS-NIR (300-1100 nm) reflectance spectra, which shows the reflectance, absorption and scattering over the wavelength and are closely related to the morphology evolution of Pd nanostructures.

Various Silver Nanostructures on Sapphire Using Plasmon Self-Assembly and Dewetting of Thin Films

Silver (Ag) nanostructures demonstrate outstanding optical, electrical, magnetic, and catalytic properties and are utilized in photonic, energy, sensors, and biomedical devices. The target application and the performance can be inherently tuned by control of configuration, shape, and size of Ag nanostructures. In this work, we demonstrate the systematical fabrication of various configurations of Ag nanostructures on sapphire (0001) by controlling the Ag deposition thickness at different annealing environments in a plasma ion coater. In particular, the evolution of Ag particles (between 2 and 20 nm), irregular nanoclusters (between 30 and 60 nm), and nanocluster networks (between 80 and 200 nm) are found be depended on the thickness of Ag thin film. The results were systematically analyzed and explained based on the solid-state dewetting, surface diffusion, Volmer-Weber growth model, coalescence, and surface energy minimization mechanism. The growth behavior of Ag nanostructures is remarkably differentiated at higher annealing temperature (750 °C) due to the sublimation and temperature-dependent characteristic of dewetting process. In addition, Raman and reflectance spectra analyses reveal that optical properties of Ag nanostructures depend on their morphology.

Resolving stress tensor components in space from polarized Raman spectra: polycrystalline alumina

A method of Raman spectroscopic analysis has been proposed for evaluating tensorial stress fields stored in alumina polycrystals with a corundum structure (α-Al2O3). Raman selection rules for all the vibrational modes of the structure were expanded into explicit functions of both 3 Euler angles in space and 4 Raman tensor elements (RTE) of corundum. A theoretical treatment was then worked out according to the phonon deformation potential (PDP) formalism, which explicitly expressed the changes in force constants under stress in matricial form. Close-form solutions could be obtained for the matrix eigenvalues as a function of 9 unknown variables, namely 6 independent stress tensor components and 3 Euler angles in space, the latter parameters being representatives of local crystal orientation. Successively, two separate sets of Raman calibration experiments were performed for the determination of both RTE and PDP constants of the corundum structure of alumina. Calibration experiments provided a quantitative frame to the newly developed Raman formalism. Polarized Raman spectra were systematically recorded in both single-crystalline and polycrystalline samples, with both A1g and Eg vibrational bands being characterized. Regarding polycrystalline samples, a validation of the proposed Raman method could be done through a comparison between Raman and fluorescence data collected at the same locations across an alumina/metal interface embedded in a steeply graded residual stress field.