title: Role of Sputter Deposition Rate in Tailoring Nanogranular Gold Structures on Polymer Surfaces.
abstract: The reproducible low-cost fabrication of functional polymer-metal interfaces via self-assembly is of crucial importance in organic electronics and organic photovoltaics. In particular, submonolayer and nanogranular systems expose highly interesting electrical, plasmonic, and catalytic properties. The exploitation of their great potential requires tailoring of the structure on the nanometer scale and below. To obtain full control over the complex nanostructural evolution at the polymer-metal interface, we monitor the evolution of the metallic layer morphology with in situ time-resolved grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering during sputter deposition. We identify the impact of different deposition rates on the growth regimes: the deposition rate affects primarily the nucleation process and the adsorption-mediated growth, whereas rather small effects on diffusion-mediated growth processes are observed. Only at higher rates are initial particle densities higher due to an increasing influence of random nucleation, and an earlier onset of thin film percolation occurs. The obtained results are discussed to identify optimized morphological parameters of the gold cluster ensemble relevant for various applications as a function of the effective layer thickness and deposition rate. Our study opens up new opportunities to improve the fabrication of tailored metal-polymer nanostructures for plasmonic-enhanced applications such as organic photovoltaics and sensors.
authors.affiliation: Photon Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) , Notkestr. 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-9286
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwartzkopf
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Materialverbunde, Institut für Materialwissenschaft, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kaiserstr. 2, D-24143 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hinz
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Materialverbunde, Institut für Materialwissenschaft, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kaiserstr. 2, D-24143 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Oleksandr
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Polonskyi
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Materialverbunde, Institut für Materialwissenschaft, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kaiserstr. 2, D-24143 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Strunskus
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle Materialien, Physik-Department, Technische Universität München , James-Franck-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Löhrer
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle Materialien, Physik-Department, Technische Universität München , James-Franck-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Körstgens
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle Materialien, Physik-Department, Technische Universität München , James-Franck-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9566-6088
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Müller-Buschbaum
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Materialverbunde, Institut für Materialwissenschaft, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kaiserstr. 2, D-24143 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faupel
authors.affiliation: Photon Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) , Notkestr. 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.|KTH Royal Institute of Technology , Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Teknikringen 56-58, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Stephan V
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6940-6012
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Roth
keywords: gold cluster morphology; in situ GISAXS; polymer−metal interfaces; real-time growth kinetics; sputter deposition rates