Microstructure of precipitated Au nanoclusters in MgO

Abstract

Gold nanoclusters dispersed in single crystal MgO have been prepared by ion implantation at 975 K and subsequent annealing at 1275 K for 10 h. The morphological features, size, and crystallographic orientation of the Au nanoclusters with respect to the MgO matrix, as well as the interface structure between the Au nanoclusters and MgO, have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy. During annealing, the Au clusters nucleate coherently in the MgO lattice, leading to an epitaxial orientation relationship of [010]MgO//[010]Au and (200)MgO//(200)Au that is maintained for all the Au clusters. Above a critical size of ∼5 to 8 nm, a coherent-semicoherent interface transition is observed for the Au clusters in MgO. This critical cluster size is larger than the critical size ∼3 nm based on energetic considerations. This discrepancy is discussed with respect to the point and extended defect structures at the interface between the Au clusters and the MgO matrix. The Au clusters larger than this critical size exhibit faceting on the {001} planes and internal dislocations. It is further suggested that the density of quantum antidots should depend on the size of the Au clusters.