Abstract:
The formation of long self-organized carbon connections (where the length is much greater
than the diameter) between Ag nanoparticles on a Si(100) surface in atmospheric pressure
Ar + CH4 microplasmas is demonstrated. A growth scenario explaining the connection
nucleation and growth is proposed, and this is supported by numerical simulations which
reveal that the electric field pattern around the growing connections affects the surface diffusion
of carbon adatoms, the main driving force for the observed self-organization.
Results suggest that the microplasma-generated surface charges can be used as effective
controls for the self-organized formation of complex carbon-based nano-networks for integrated
nanodevices.