Rayleigh-instability-driven dewetting of thin Au and Ag films on ITO surface under nanosecond laser irradiations

We carried out investigations on laser-beam-induced nanoparticle formation in thin (5 nm) Au and Ag films on ITO substrate. After the irradiation the films were observed to break-up into nanoparticles through a dewetting mechanism. This mechanism was investigated as a Rayleighinstability- driven process. In fact, for each used laser fluence, the resulting Au and Ag nanoparticles mean size and surface-to-surface mean distance were quantified and correlated between them in the framework of the Rayleigh instability theory showing an excellent agreement.