Template-assisted nanostructure fabrication by glancing angle deposition: a molecular dynamics study
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NANO EXPRESS
Open Access
Template-assisted nanostructure fabrication by glancing angle deposition: a molecular dynamics study Junjie Zhang1, Yongzhi Cao1*, Qiang Gao2, Chao Wu1, Fuli Yu1 and Yingchun Liang1
Abstract In the present work, we investigate the pre-existing template-assisted glancing angle deposition of Al columnar structures on Cu substrate by means of molecular dynamics simulations, with a focus on examining the effect of deposition-induced template deformation on the morphologies of the fabricated structures. Our simulations demonstrate that the pre-existing templates significantly intensify the shadowing effect, which thus facilitates the formation of columnar structures under small deposition flux. The underlying deformation modes of the templates under different deposition configurations are analyzed and are correlated to the geometrical characteristics of the columnar structures. It is found that the template height-dependent deformation behavior of the templates strongly influences the morphologies of the fabricated columnar structures. Our findings provide design and fabrication guidelines for the fabrication of one-dimensional nanostructures by the template-assisted deposition technique. Keywords: Glancing angle deposition; Template; Deformation mechanism; Molecular dynamics
Background One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures, including nanopillars, nanorods, nanotubes, and nanowires, are promising building blocks for constructing nanoscale electronical and optoelectronical elements and interconnects because of their unique physical properties [1]. In addition to the characterization, the fabrication of ordered arrays of 1D nanostructures has been one of the current research focuses of nanostructures engineering. In particular, the rotational glancing angle deposition (GLAD) has been demonstrated to be one powerful nanostructuring technique for the fabrication of columnar nanostructures in an orientation- and structure-controllable, materialindependent fashion [2-6]. The rotational GLAD as a physical vapor deposition is extended from the static GLAD (oblique angle deposition) by adding azimuthal and/or polar rotations of the substrate. During the rotational GLAD process, the lateral component of deposition flux with respect to the surface normal of the * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Center for Precision Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
substrate contributes to the formation of columnar structures due to the shadowing effect, while the rotation of the substrate eliminates the preferred orientation growth, thus controls the shape of the structures. In the past few decades, there is considerable effort of both experimental investigation and atomistic simulations taken to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of the rotational GLAD [7-11]. Since nucleated islands acting as shadowing centers are essentially required for the formation of columnar structures in the init
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