Issue 38, 2015

Thermal instabilities and Rayleigh breakup of ultrathin silver nanowires grown in helium nanodroplets

Abstract

Ag nanowires with diameters below 6 nm are grown within vortex containing superfluid helium nanodroplets and deposited onto a heatable substrate at cryogenic temperatures. The experimental setup allows an unbiased investigation of the inherent stability of pristine silver nanowires, which is virtually impossible with other methods due to chemical processes or templates involved in standard production routes. We demonstrate by experiment and by adaption of a theoretical model that initially continuous wires disintegrate into chains of spheres. This phenomenon is well described by a Rayleigh-like breakup mechanism when the substrate is heated to room temperature. Our findings clarify the recent discussions on the cause of the observed segmented patterns, where a breakup during deposition [Gomez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 155302] or mechanisms intrinsic to the helium droplet mediated growth process [Spence et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, 16, 6903] have been proposed. The experimental setup confirms the validity of previous suggestions derived from bulk superfluid helium experiments [Gordon et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, 16, 25229] for the helium droplet system, and further allows a much more accurate determination of the breakup temperature.

Graphical abstract: Thermal instabilities and Rayleigh breakup of ultrathin silver nanowires grown in helium nanodroplets

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
07 Aug 2015
Accepted
09 Sep 2015
First published
10 Sep 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 24570-24575

Thermal instabilities and Rayleigh breakup of ultrathin silver nanowires grown in helium nanodroplets

A. Volk, D. Knez, P. Thaler, A. W. Hauser, W. Grogger, F. Hofer and W. E. Ernst, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 24570 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP04696C

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