Nanocolumnar association and domain formation in porous thin films grown by evaporation at oblique angles

Porous thin films grown at oblique angles by evaporation techniques are formed by tilted nanocolumnar structures which, depending on the material type and growth conditions, associate along certain preferential directions, giving rise to large domains. This arrangement, commonly denoted as bundling...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: López-Santos, Carmen, Álvarez, Rafael, García-Valenzuela, Aurelio, Rico, Víctor J., Loeffler, M., González-Elipe, Agustín R., Palmero, Alberto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/191074
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/191074
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:TiO2
OAD evaporation
GLAD
SiO2
Porous thin films
Nanocolumns association
Descripción
Sumario:Porous thin films grown at oblique angles by evaporation techniques are formed by tilted nanocolumnar structures which, depending on the material type and growth conditions, associate along certain preferential directions, giving rise to large domains. This arrangement, commonly denoted as bundling association, is investigated in the present work by performing fundamental experiments and growth simulations. It is proved that trapping processes of vapor species at the film surface, together with the shadowing mechanism, mediate the anisotropic widening of the nanocolumns and promote their preferential coalescence along certain directions, giving rise to domains with different shape and size. The role of these two processes is thoroughly studied in connection with the formation of these domains in materials as different as SiO and TiO.