Using Thermal Crowding to Direct Pattern Formation on the Nanoscale

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-22-2024

Abstract

Metal films and other metal geometries of nanoscale thickness deposited on an insulating substrate, when exposed to laser irradiation, melt and evolve as fluids as long as their temperature is sufficiently high. This evolution often leads to pattern formation, which may be influenced strongly by material parameters that are temperature dependent. In addition, the laser heat absorption itself depends on the time-dependent metal thickness. Self-consistent modeling of evolving metal films shows that, by controlling the amount and geometry of the deposited metal, one can control the instability development. In particular, we demonstrate the "thermal crowding"effect: additional metal leads to elevated temperatures, which strongly influence the metal evolution, even if the metal geometries are disjoint. We demonstrate that the communication of disjoint metal domains occurs via heat diffusion through the underlying substrate. Fully self-consistent modeling focusing on the dominant effects, as well as accurate time-dependent simulations, allow us to describe the main features of thermal crowding and provide a route to control fluid instabilities and pattern formation on the nanoscale.

Identifier

85210940244 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.214003

e-ISSN

10797114

ISSN

00319007

PubMed ID

39642495

Issue

21

Volume

133

Grant

DMS-1815613

Fund Ref

National Science Foundation

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