Growth dynamics and its correlation with plasmonic properties of silver nanoparticles grown by solid state dewetting

Abstract

Surface morphology and growth dynamics of silver nanoparticles grown by solid-state dewetting of sputtered precursor silver films are studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with advanced statistical analysis. Height-height correlation function (HHCF) and power spectral density function (PSDF) were extracted from AFM data, and scaling exponents αlocal,β,1/z and α were determined using analysis. HHCF analysis reveals that interface width w follows power law dependence with precursor film thickness (t) as ∼t0.48±0.01 for as-deposited films and ∼t1.27±0.08 for annealed films. Similarly, lateral correlation length ξ is observed to scale with precursor film thickness as ∼t0.58±0.08 for as-deposited films and ∼t0.65±0.05 for annealed films. The HHCF and PSDF analysis confirmed mound-like growth of the nanoparticles for the higher thickness of the precursor films. A direct correlation between morphology and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties of the silver nanoparticles is also observed.