title: Oxidation-Induced Surface Roughening of Aluminum Nanoparticles Formed in an Ablation Plume.
abstract: Nanoparticles formed within an ablation plume produced by the impact of a nanosecond laser pulse on the surface of an aluminum target have been directly measured using small-angle x-ray scattering. The target was immersed in an oxygen-nitrogen gas mixture at atmospheric pressure with the O_{2}/N_{2} ratio being precisely controlled. The results for an increasing oxygen content reveal remarkable effects on the morphology of the generated particles, which include a decrease in the particle volume but a marked increase in its surface ruggedness. Molecular dynamics simulations using a reactive potential and performed under similar conditions as the experiment reproduce the experimental trends and show in detail how the shape and surface structure of the nanoparticles evolve with increasing oxygen content. This good agreement between in situ observations in the plume and atomistic simulations emphasizes the key role of chemical reactivity together with thermodynamic conditions on the morphology of the particles thus produced.
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Georg Daniel
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Förster
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 6303 CNRS-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Av. A. Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Girault
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Menneveux
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 6303 CNRS-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Av. A. Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lavisse
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 6303 CNRS-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Av. A. Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jouvard
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 6303 CNRS-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Av. A. Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Maria Del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Marco de Lucas
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 6303 CNRS-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Av. A. Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Potin
authors.affiliation: Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), PSN-RES, SCA, LPMA, Gif sur Yvette 91192, France.
authors.forename: François-Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Ouf
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Mécanique, Matériaux et Énergétique, Faculté des Sciences Exactes, Université A. MIRA de Béjaïa, Route de Targa Ouzemour, 06000 Béjaïa, Algeria.
authors.forename: Moussa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerkar
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Le Garrec
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Erwann
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carvou
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carles
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rabilloud
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique, CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, UMR 5588, BP 87, 38402 Saint Martin d'Hères, France.
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Calvo
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.|Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: James Brian
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Mitchell