Real-Time Monitoring of Growing Nanoparticles
Gilles Renaud,1*
Rémi Lazzari,1,2
Christine Revenant,1
Antoine Barbier,1
Marion Noblet,1
Olivier Ulrich,1
Frédéric Leroy,1
Jacques Jupille,2
Yves Borensztein,3
Claude R. Henry,4
Jean-Paul Deville,5
Fabrice Scheurer,5
Jeannot Mane-Mane,5
Olivier Fruchart6
One challenge in the production of nanometer-sized objects with given properties is to control their growth at a macroscopic scale in situ and in real time. A dedicated ultrahigh-vacuum grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering setup has been developed, yielding high sensitivity and dynamics. Its capabilities to derive the average particle shape and size and the film growth mode and ordering and to probe both surfaces and buried interfaces are illustrated for two prototypical cases: the model catalyst Pd/MgO(100) and the self-organized Co/Au(111) system. A wide range of technologically important systems can potentially be investigated in various gaseous environments.
1 Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée/Service de Physique des Matériaux et des Microstructures, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique Grenoble, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 09, France.
2 Groupe de Physique du Solide, Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France.
3 Laboratoire d'Optique du Solide, CNRS, and Université Paris 6, case 80, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
4 Centre de Recherche sur les Mécanismes de la Croissance Cristalline-CNRS, Campus de Luminy, case 913, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France.
5 Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7504 CNRS–Université Louis Pasteur, 23 rue du Loess, 67037 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
6 Laboratoire Louis Néel, boîte postale 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: grenaud{at}cea.fr
