Metastable Materials Formation by ion Beam Assisted Deposition: Application to M Clusters in Ceramic Matrices

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe collision cascade, the fundamental event in ion-solid interactions, is responsible for the beneficial effects on thin films deposited by low energy ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) or by energetic ion assisted deposition processes in general. However, the fundamental implications of the marriage of collision cascades and film growth processes have yet to be fully realized. The first half of this paper reviews the effects of ion bombardment on film growth and reaches some new conclusions. We propose that IBAD represents a different ion-solid interaction in a fundamental sense, and that as such, it should lead to new microstructures unattainable by other materials synthesis methods.The second part of this paper discusses the deposition of metal nanoclusters in a dielectric matrix by means of beam assisted phase separation (BAPS), a term coined here to describe deposition of phase-separated multicomponent materials. Examples discussed are gold nanoparticles in both niobium oxide and silica matrices.