Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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DS: Dünne Schichten

DS 13: Internal Symposium “Nanoengineered thin films”

DS 13.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 14:00–14:45, GER 37

Adventures in Atomic Aggregation — •Kevin Robbie, Kate Kaminska, Jian Yang, Chelsea Elliott, and Cristina Buzea — Department of Physics, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 3N6

The conceptually simple experiment of sequentially depositing atoms onto a flat surface can yield surprisingly complex results. The resulting thin film coatings are seen to depend strongly, in structure and physical behaviour, on the arrival geometry of condensing atoms, in addition to the manifest dependence on chemistry, temperature, etc. Dynamic control of geometry during the growth of thin films, particularly under conditions of glancing vapour incidence, allows atomic-scale engineering of uniquely structured matter, exhibiting anomalous birefringence, chiral optical activity, magnetic anisotropy; and likely bioactivity, novel superconductivity and more.

This talk examines the origin of structure in atomically aggregated materials, and questions their usefulness as a nano-technology. Specific examples discussed will include: molecular ordering and light switching in a hybrid liquid crystal device, interference filters with continuously varying refractive index, highly anisotropic magnets, nanostructured silicon with an absolute birefringence of 0.4, and noble-metal ’pyramids’ that arise through an as-yet unexplained mechanism. Atomic granularity is seen to play a central role in the emergence of complex form in these structures, suggesting that fundamental questions of predictability and chaos might be probed with this experiment.