Ion beam induced formation and interrogation of Au nanoclusters.
Low-energy ion bombardment of a Au thin film by 0.5 keV Ar+ forms self-organized nanoclusters that display quantum size effects. The reduction of Au coverage with sputtering time is quantified with x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and a decrease of both the rms roughness and correlation length is measured by STM. Neutralization of scattered 3 keV Na+ and K+ alkali-metal ions is used to probe the electronic states of the sputter-induced nanoclusters. The neutral fractions gradually increase as the cluster dimensions decrease, indicating that the electronic structure is similar to that of clusters grown by deposition.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
P
P
Karmakar
G F
GF
Liu
Z
Z
Sroubek
J A
JA
Yarmoff