Understanding gold nanoisland formation using transport measurement

Novel metal nano-clusters are always being an interest of scientists and researchers because of their unique optical and chemical properties. This thesis studies the formation mechanism of gold nanoisland film by studying transport properties. We used layer-by-layer self-assembled multilayer gold samples and annealed them at the temperature ranging from room temperature to 625°C. Transport properties, particularly the resistance and capacitance, were measured in situ during annealing and compared with the surface morphology and UV-vis studies. Five films of the 8-layer gold and one film of the 5-layer silver and 5-layer gold nanoparticle sequentially self-assembled samples were measured. Temperature dependent resistance curves were plotted and analyzed. From the resistance curves, we were able to identify the actual temperature for polymer evaporation and nanoisland formation. These data were re-verified by comparing them with the temperature dependent studies of surface morphology and UV-vis spectroscopy. The effect of measuring condition, like heating rate and pre-annealing time factor, was also analyzed. Particularly, the slow heating and long pre-annealing time effected nanoisland growth mechanism.