Sculpting nanoscale precipitation patterns in nanocomposite thin films via hyperthermal ion deposition

Control of the morphology of self-organized nanostructures is the key issue in bottom-up approaches. Here, morphological transitions of precipitation patterns in C:Cu nanocomposite films are studied. The films have been grown by oblique incidence ionized physical vapor deposition. We show that the ion energy and directionality are transferred into the C-Cu phase separation process resulting in nanopattern formation and tilt. Increasing metal content induces the "tilted"-"lying" transition accompanied with Cu nanoparticle prolate-spherical-oblate shape transformations. The results allow the identification of metal subplantation as the key atomistic mechanism, and demonstrate the possibility to achieve nanoscale sculpting via energetic ion deposition. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3503967]