Influence of metal growth on polymers by pulsed laser deposition

Nowadays, fabrication of embedded metal particles in dielectric matrices plays an important role for technical devices, e.g. data storage, sensors or enhancement of efficiency of solar cells. In this work, metal nanoparticles were embedded in polymers by pulsed laser deposition. Here, two important aspects are crucial in the deposition process of metal/polymer systems. First, laser ablation of polymers induces chemically modified polymers and, secondly, the high kinetic energy of metal ions (100 eV) causes implantation processes in the polymer. Both aspects drastically change morphology and kinetics of metal growth in polymers, which is studied by electron microscopy, in-situ resistance measurements and x-ray diffraction. In case of studying the growth morphology the question comes up, whether distinction of growth stages (nucleation and growth of clusters, coalescence, percolation and closed films) can be controlled by the number of laser pulses. On the other hand the effect on growth kinetics due to polymer modification is studied. Finally, it is studied if laser deposited metal/polymer systems are suited for sensor applications