AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Thin Film Thursday Sessions
       Session TF1-ThM

Paper TF1-ThM3
Combinatorial Fabrication of Cu-Fe2O3 Composite Nanostructures by Oblique Angle Co-Deposition

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 8:40 am, Room 104E

Session: Control and Modeling of Thin Film Growth and Film Characterization
Presenter: Yiping Zhao, University of Georgia
Authors: S. Larson, University of Georgia
W.J. Huang, University of Georgia
Y.P. Zhao, University of Georgia
Correspondent: Click to Email
Traditionally, new materials have been explored and discovered via the one by one trial-and-error method. This can require decades of research to identify and optimize a material system for technological application and commercialization. From an experimental point of view, to speed up materials discovery, a large amount of materials need to be synthesized/fabricated and characterized simultaneously. Such a parallel production and characterization process has been traditionally targeted by a so-called high throughput or combinatorial materials science. The adaptation of the combinatorial techniques to nanofabrication has been slow due to the complexity and variety of fabrication techniques. To-date, only few groups have realized combinatory nano-synthesis via multi-well hydrothermal and solvothermal methods. However, based on combinatory thin film deposition technique and shadowing growth mechanism, a new and versatile combinatory nanofabrication technique called the oblique angle co-deposition can be easily facilitated. It can be used to generate a library of nanomaterials with different morphology and structure. In this talk we demonstrate the feasibility of such a nanofabrication technique. Using the Cu-Fe2O3 system as an example, by carefully characterizing the vapor plumes of the source materials, a composition map can be generated, which is used to design the locations of all the substrate holders. The resulting nanostructures at different locations show different thickness, morphology, crystallinity, composition, as well as inhomogeneity in microstructures. In addition, material maps of all these structural parameters are established, which can be used to correlate their properties. By further oxidizing or reducing the composite nanostructures, the properties of the nanostructures such as band gap, photocatalytic performance, and magnetic properties can be easily linked to their composition and other structural parameters. Optimal materials for photocatalytic and magnetic applications are efficiently identified. It is expected that the oblique angle co-deposition and its variations could become the most powerful combinatory nanofabrication technique for nanomaterial survey.