title: Competing liquid phase instabilities during pulsed laser induced self-assembly of copper rings into ordered nanoparticle arrays on SiO2.
abstract: Nanoscale copper rings of different radii, thicknesses, and widths were synthesized on silicon dioxide thin films and were subsequently liquefied via a nanosecond pulse laser treatment. During the nanoscale liquid lifetimes, the rings experience competing retraction dynamics and thin film and/or Rayleigh-Plateau types of instabilities, which lead to arrays of ordered nanodroplets. Surprisingly, the results are significantly different from those of similar experiments carried out on a Si surface. We use hydrodynamic simulations to elucidate how the different liquid/solid interactions control the different instability mechanisms in the present problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fowlkes
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Diez
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kondic
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Rack