On Friday January 28, Frank Everts has successfully defended his PhD thesis: Characterization of nanometre-scale patterns on Cu(001) and Ag(001) by means of optical spectroscopy and high-resolution electron diffraction
Summary
The creation of nanometre-scale patterns by self organization is of great interest, because of the possibility to cover large areas in a fast and cheap way. To be able to use this technique in an industrial environment it is of great importance that we understand the underlying fundamental mechanisms. Often this is done by (ex-situ) analysis of the patterned surfaces after the self-organization process. However, to fully understand the pattern formation, an in-situ probe is needed. In this thesis we used an optical in-situ technique (Reflectance Anisotropy Spectroscopy) to measure the difference in reflection, due to the anisotropic patterning of surfaces. We developed a model to analyze the results and obtain the parameters that describe the main properties of the surface.
