Indium islands
immc | Louvain-la-Neuve
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) is used to deposit continuous thin films with thickness in the hundreds of nanometers range. For some metals with low melting temperature, deposition proceeds in “islands” of various sizes and shapes. This picture shows indium “islands” deposited by PVD on a silicon substrate and observed with a scanning electron microscope. This unique, fractal-like pattern occurs as the smallest particles (a few nanometers radius) progressively merge into larger ones (100 nanometers radius). As the islands grow, their edges become sharper – giving a hint about their crystalline nature.