EFFECT OF SIZE-DEPENDENT INTERFACE PROPERTIES ON STABILITY OF METAL-CLUSTERS ON CERAMIC SUBSTRATES

The electronic properties of metal-ceramic interfaces are found to var y with the size of the inter face in the range of 3-100 nm. Interface properties can be extracted from variations in apparent heights of met al clusters, as measured by scanning tunneling microscopy, of small cl usters on atomically smooth oxide surfaces. Relations that describe th e size dependence in terms of parameters related to interfacial bondin g are developed. The effect of the size dependent interface properties on metal cluster stability are explored by modeling the effect of the parameters that control contact potential and comparing the size depe ndence with that of the other contributions to the total energy. (C) 1 998 Acta Metallurgica Inc.