A study of the self-aligned nanometre scale palladium clusters on silicon formation process

The possibility of the self-aligned formation of Pd/Pd2Si/Si nanostructures on a single-crystal silicon substrate is shown. A porous anodic oxide him of Al was used as a mask which determines the size and shape of the nanostructures. A thin Al film was first deposited on the silicon substrate and then transformed in a nanoporous oxide by the well known anodic treatment procedure in a sulfuric acid and water solution. It is shown by atomic force microscopy that nanoscale Pd clusters with diameters equal to the size of pores in anodic Al remain at the surface of silicon substrate after cathode deposition of Pd into the pores, vacuum thermal annealing and chemical etching of the Al2O3 mask. In addition, we determine the dependencies of the size and shape of the nanoclusters on the mask formation regimes and the Pd deposition conditions.