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Polar Step-Driven Metal Nucleation and Growth: The Ag/ZnO(101̅0) Case

Authors :
Benedetti, Stefania
Valenti, Ilaria
Valeri, Sergio
Castilla, Sebastián
Touzé, Edouard
Bronstein, Yael
Toumar, Alexandra
Finocchi, Fabio
Lazzari, Rémi
Source :
The Journal of Physical Chemistry - Part C; March 2020, Vol. 124 Issue: 11 p6130-6140, 11p
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

The morphology, epitaxy, band alignment, and optical response of silver nanoparticles on ZnO(101̅0) have been analyzed by microscopy, electron diffraction, photoemission and differential reflectivity. At 700 K, clusters tend to nucleate and grow exclusively along [010]-oriented polar steps and corners and not on flat terraces or nonpolar [001] steps. This preference leads to a specific epitaxy Ag[11̅0](111) ∥ ZnO[010](101̅0) with a large lattice mismatch along the dense row of the metal. The experiments have been rationalized through ab initiosimulations. A much lower adsorption energy is obtained for the O-terminated steps with a charge transfer from silver to oxygen that corroborates the variation of ionization energy observed in photoemission and the presence of cationic silver. This anisotropy of growth reverberates in the plasmonic response of the metallic particles. The growth and epitaxy of metals on polar (0001) and nonpolar (101̅0) orientations of ZnO are discussed in terms of surface/step polarity compensation in the light of the present findings.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19327447 and 19327455
Volume :
124
Issue :
11
Database :
Supplemental Index
Journal :
The Journal of Physical Chemistry - Part C
Publication Type :
Periodical
Accession number :
ejs52516472
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b11464