title: Formation of highly ordered arrays of dimples on tantalum at the nanoscale.
abstract: We show that electropolishing of tantalum metal in a single step of about 5 min can reproducibly lead to dimples tens of nanometers in diameter, regular in shape, monodispersed in size, and arranged in highly ordered arrays which even transverse grain boundaries. Dimpled tantalum is ductile, high melting, and chemically inert, which makes it suitable for nanostructure synthesis even under extreme conditions, as demonstrated with a simple sputter coating and flame annealing procedure for gold nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M1, Canada.
authors.forename: Hany
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: El-Sayed
authors.forename: Sherdeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Mark T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Greiner
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kruse