A clear tendency toward organized growth, at room temperature, of Ni nano-islands deposited onto a CoO(001) nanopatterned surface was reported. The 9.2nm square surface patterning consisted of a periodic displacement field induced at the surface by an underlying interfacial dislocation network that was buried at the interface between the 5nm thick CoO(001) thin film and the Ag(001) substrate. Grazing incidence small and wide angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS and grazing incidence diffraction) performed in situ, during growth, revealed that the nucleation of Ni particles was driven by the underlying dislocation distribution. The tendency for organization was confirmed by scanning tunnelling microscopy, which also revealed a quite narrow size distribution of the Ni nanoparticles around 5nm width and 0.6nm height.

Self-Organized Growth of Ni Nanoparticles on a Cobalt-Oxide Thin Film Induced by a Buried Misfit Dislocation Network. P.Torelli, E.A.Soares, G.Renaud, L.Gragnaniello, S.Valeri, X.X.Guo, P.Luches: Physical Review B, 2008, 77[8], 081409(R) (4pp)