Growth dynamics and its correlation with plasmonic properties of silver nanoparticles grown by solid state dewetting

Surface morphology and growth dynamics of silver nanoparticles grown by solid-state dewetting of sputtered precursor silver films are studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with advanced statistical analysis. Height-height correlation function (HHCF) and power spectral density function (PSDF) were extracted from AFM data, and scaling exponents & alpha;local,& beta;,1/z and & alpha; were determined using analysis. HHCF analysis reveals that interface width w follows power law dependence with precursor film thickness (t) as -t0.48*0.01 for as-deposited films and -t1.27*0.08 for annealed films. Similarly, lateral correlation length & xi; is observed to scale with precursor film thickness as -t0.58*0.08 for as-deposited films and -t0.65*0.05 for annealed films. The HHCF and PSDF analysis confirmed mound-like growth of the nanoparticles for the higher thickness of the precursor films. A direct correlation between morphology and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties of the silver nanoparticles is also observed.