Morphology and size distribution of gold nanoclusters in a-C : H films studied by grazing incidence small-angle x-ray scattering - art. no. 195401

We present a morphological study of gold-containing amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C:H/Au) grown by a combined physical vapor deposition/plasm a-assisted chemical vapor deposition process. By using grazing incidence sm all-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) we show that isolated Au nanoclusters a re regularly distributed within the a-C:H matrix. From the GISAXS analysis, which we based on the local monodisperse approximation. the shape, size, a nd correlation distance of the nanoclusters as well as the size distributio n both in the film plane and in the film growth direction are determined. W e show that the nanocomposite films consist of an assembly of prolate and o blate ellipsoids (spherical on average, however) having a broader size dist ribution in the film plane than in the perpendicular direction.