Nanogranular metallic 2D systems on polymers
Metallized organic surfaces have hosts of applications ranging from food packing through catalysis to microelectronics packaging and organic electronics. Recently, the sub-monolayer regime arose much interest. This is due to the nanogranular 2D structures which are obtained in this regime, having very interesting functional properties. These are explored in fields of enormous technological importance such as photovoltaics, optoelectronics, plasmonics, catalysis, and sensors. Concerning the electronic properties, the regime below the percolation threshold, which is governed by electron tunneling, is still a subject of current fundamental interest. Tailoring of the nanostructure is crucial. In particular, control over the extension of the nanogaps is of vital importance during deposition because the nanogaps determine the interaction between neighboring metallic nanoparticles and thus directly affect the functional properties. Plasmonic properties, for instance, strongly depend on the coupling between the neighboring dipoles, and electronic properties depend exponentially on the width of the tunneling barrier. Together with Dr. Stephan Roth from DESY in Hamburg and Peter Müller-Buschbaum from the TU Munich we investigate the growth of the metallic nanostructures in situ with very high temporal resolution with GISAXS and other techniques.
Fig.1 Sputter chamber for the real-time monitoring of the growth of submonolayer nanogranular metallic nanostructures on polymer surfaces with GISAXT at the DESY synchrotron facility in Hamburg.
Selected publications
F. C. Löhrer, V. Körstgens, G. Semino, M. Schwartzkopf, A. Hinz, O. Polonskyi, T. Strunskus, F. Faupel, S. V. Roth, P. Müller-Buschbaum, Following in Situ the Deposition of Gold Electrodes on Low Band Gap Polymer Films, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12 (2020) 1132-1141.
M. Gensch, M. Schwartzkopf, W. Ohm, C. J. Brett, P. Pandit, S. Koyiloth Vayalil, L. Bießmann, L. P. Kreuzer, J. Drewes, O. Polonskyi, T. Strunskus, F. Faupel, A. Stierle, P. Müller-Buschbaum, S. V. Roth, Correlating Nanostructure, Optical and Electronic Properties of Nanogranular Silver Layers during Polymer-Template-Assisted Sputter Deposition, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11 (2019) 29416-29426
M. Schwartzkopf, A. Hinz, O. Polonskyi, T. Strunskus, F. C. Löhrer, V. Körstgens, P. Müller-Buschbaum, F. Faupel, S. V. Roth, Role of sputter deposition rate in tailoring nanogranular gold structures on polymer surfaces, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 9(6), (2017), 5629–5637.
Abraham, J.W.; Strunskus, T.; Faupel, F.; Bonitz, M.; Molecular dynamics simulation of gold cluster growth during sputter deposition, Journal of Applied Physics 119 (2016) 185301 ; "Editors' Pick".
Schwartzkopf, M.; Santoro, G.; Brett, C.J.; Rothkirch, A.; Polonskyi, O.; Hinz, A.; Metwalli, E.; Yao, Y.; Strunskus, T.; Faupel, F; Muller-Buschbaum, P.; Roth, S.V.; Real-Time Monitoring of Morphology and Optical Properties during Sputter Deposition for Tailoring Metal-Polymer-Interfaces, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces online (2015) .
Abraham, J.W.; Kongsuwan, N.; Strunskus, T.; Faupel, F.; Bonitz, M.; Simulation of nanocolumn formation in a plasma environment, Journal of Applied Physics 117 (2015) 14305.
Rosenthal, L.; Strunskus, T.; Faupel, F.; Abraham, J.W.; Bonitz, M.: Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Cluster Growth and Diffusion in Metal-Polymer Nanocomposites, Complex Plasmas, Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics 82 (2014) 321-370.