Annual Review of Materials Research· 2012Q1· Review
Solid-State Dewetting of Thin Films
- 1,164citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2012year
Short summary
Thin solid films spontaneously break apart into islands when heated, driven by surface energy reduction, a process that can be controlled for fabricating nanoscale devices or avoided during micro- and nanosystem manufacturing.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Thin solid films dewet into islands when heated due to surface energy minimization.
- Dewetting occurs via surface diffusion below the melting temperature, especially in very thin films.
- Dewetting can be undesirable in micro/nanosystems but useful for fabricating nanoscale particle arrays.
- Patterned topography can template dewetting for ordered arrays and complex structures.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Solid films are usually metastable or unstable in the as-deposited state, and they will dewet or agglomerate to form islands when heated to sufficiently high temperatures. This process is driven by surface energy minimization and can occur via surface diffusion well below a film's melting temperature, especially when the film is very thin. Dewetting during processing of films for use in micro- and nanosystems is often undesirable, and means of avoiding dewetting are important in this context. However, dewetting can also be useful in making arrays of nanoscale particles for electronic and photonic devices and for catalyzing growth of nanotubes and nanowires. Templating of dewetting using patterned surface topography or prepatterning of films can be used to create ordered arrays of particles and complex patterns of partially dewetted structures. Studies of dewetting can also provide fundamental new insight into the effects of surface energy anisotropy and facets on shape evolution.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Materials Research, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Computational Mechanics
Computational MechanicsEngineering