Cross-sectional STEM observation of nanoparticle-attached silicon wafer: specimen prepared by focused ion-beam

A thermal hydrosilylation process could successfully immobilize 5-heptene-1-thiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles onto hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces. In order to understand the immobilization structures, it is very important to observe the linkage between the nanoparticles and the substrate surface. For this purpose, a cross-sectional observation of gold nanoparticle-attached silicon substrate was carried out by using a high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM). The specimens were prepared by using a focused ion-beam (FIB) machine. According to the Ga ion-beam irradiation, many single-nano-sized nanoparticles were fused to grow up to larger particles and amorphous Si layers were generated.