| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session TF-WeM |
| Session: | Nanostructuring Thin Films I |
| Presenter: | R. Kalyanaraman, University of Tennessee |
| Authors: | H. Krishna, Washington University R. Sachan, University of Tennessee N. Shirato, University of Tennessee J. Strader, University of Tennessee A.K. Gangopadhyay, Washington University H. Garcia, Southern Illinois University R. Kalyanaraman, University of Tennessee |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Metallic nanostructures and nanocomposites have many applications related to their magnetic, plasmonic and magneto-optical properties. Fabricating desired structures and compositions in a reliable and cost-effective manner is therefore of substantial importance to applications in energy harvesting, sensing and data processing. Here we will focus on the robust pattern formation characteristics of thermodynamically unstable single and bilayer metallic films. The unstable energy state manifests itself as spontaneous dewetting and self-organization under energetic radiation, such as from nanosecond pulse lasers. The ensuing patterns contain a fascinating range of nanostructures as well as physical properties. The general principle that explains the length-scale selection for this pattern formation is the balance between rates of free energy change and energy loss during film deformation. We have applied this principle to the single and bilayer systems and have found very good agreement with experimental observations. We will also briefly discuss our studies of nanoscale nucleation, size-dependent magnetic anisotropy, plasmonic behavior and the magneto-optical properties of some elemental and composite metallic materials made by this self-organization process.
* This work is supported by NSF grants CAREER DMI-0449258, CMMI-0757589, DMR-0805258 and by Center for Materials Innovation grant # 94509A