Size controlled deposition of Cu and Si nano-clusters by an ultra-high vacuum sputtering gas aggregation technique

In this paper we have reported the syntheses of copper and silicon nano-clusters by a sputtering-gas-aggregation type growth technique. The process involves typical magnetron sputtering vaporization of target materials followed by an inert gas condensation to form clusters of varying sizes. The size-distributions of the clusters typically follow a normal-distribution and the peak cluster sizes of the distributions depends on several factors, which include gas-flow rate, length of the growth region, deposition pressure etc. We have observed a variation in the peak cluster size with the variation of the gas (argon) flow rates. The experimental values are compared with the existing models and the results are found to be in good agreement. The results are significant since it demonstrates that proper optimization of operation conditions can lead to desired cluster sizes as well as desired cluster-size distributions.