Morphology evolution and local electric properties of Au nanoparticles on ZnO thin films -: art. no. 084302

We report the sequential two-step pulsed laser deposition of nanostructures consisting of ZnO thin films covered with Au nanoparticles. Zn and Au targets were alternatively submitted to pulses generated by a frequency tripled Nd:yttrium aluminium garnet (lambda=355 nm, tau similar to 10 ns, nu=10 Hz) laser. The ZnO films were synthesized in 20 Pa oxygen pressure, whereas the subsequent Au coverage was applied in vacuum. The dynamics of Au nanoparticles grown on the ZnO thin-films surface was studied by atomic force microscopy as a function of number of laser pulses applied for the ablation of the Au target. The nanoparticle diameters increase with the number of laser pulses while their height decreases. The local electric properties of the uncoated (reference) and coated with Au ZnO thin films was investigated by current sensing mode atomic force microscopy. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.