Structural anomalies induced by the metal deposition methods in 2D silver nanoparticle arrays prepared by nanosphere lithography

Silver nanoparticle arrays with 2-dimensional hexagonal arrangement were fabricated on the silicon substrates by nanosphere lithography. The silver film was deposited either by thermal evaporation or by magnetron sputtering under different conditions. The nanostructures of the achieved sphere template and the array units were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, and were found to be anomalous under different deposition parameters. Comparative study indicated that the formation of the various 2-dimensional silver nanoparticle array structures was dominated by the thermal energy (temperature), kinetic energy and deposition direction of the deposited metal atoms as well as the size and nanocurvature of the colloidal particles and the metal clusters.