In situ electrical transport measurements and self-organization in gold nanoparticle films during and after deposition

In the first part of this paper, a new method is shown which is able to pre dict the particle size of conductive nanoparticle films in situ, during dep osition. The method is used for the measurement of the time-derivative of c onductance fluctuations during deposition. The second part of the paper dea ls with in situ conductance measurements on gold films during deposition. D uring the measurement, various electrical fields have been applied in order to study the possible influence of the field magnitude on the film formati on. The observed effects have been interpreted by the biased percolation mo del. A possible technological application of the observed phenomenon is the fabrication of nanoparticle films with controlled disorder, e.g. in chemic al sensors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.