Formation of porous zinc nanostructures during self-organization of critically small steady-state supersaturations

Abstract

Porous zinc nanosystems have been obtained with help of a technological approach, which is based on the self-organization in plasma-condensate systems during vapor deposition at critically small supersaturations. The main advantage of the proposed approach is the outstanding reproducibility of the structural and morphological characteristics of the nanostructured condensates films. The experimental results have shown that three structure formation zones can be distinguished depending on the deposition parameters, such as the working gas pressure PAr and the discharge power Pw. Within each zone morphologically identical porous layers are formed. The first zone corresponds to nanowire formation with diameters ranging from 60 to 200 nm, which are connected into nodes. The transition to the second zone is observed at PAr greater than 5 Pa and Pw less than 27 W. The increase of PAr and the decrease of Pw in the described range cause an increase of the supersaturation value. As a result a gradual transition to the formation of faceted crystals occurs. It is established, that the presence of chemically active residual gases suppresses the nanowire formation for the whole range of the parameters used.