Formation of patterned arrays of Au nanoparticles on SiC surface by template confined dewetting of normal and oblique deposited nanoscale films

We report on the formation of patterned arrays of Au nanoparticles on 6H-SiC surface exploiting the dewetting properties of a template-confined deposited nanoscale Au film. In this approach, the Au surface pattern order, on the SiC substrate, is established by the template confined deposition on a micrometric scale. Then, a dewetting process of the patterned au film is induced by thermal processes. In particular, in this work, we compare the results, in terms of pattern formation, obtained for normal deposited and oblique deposited Au films. We show, so, that different starting configurations of the same patterned film, obtained by a different choose of the deposition angle α (α=0° and α=42°), originate different patterns of the arrays of nanoparticles obtained after the dewetting process. For each fixed α, the pattern evolution is analyzed, by scanning electron microscopy, as a function of the annealing time at 900 °C. From these analyses, quantitative evaluations on the nanoparticles size evolution are drawn.