High-temperature annealing of thin Au films on Si: Growth of SiO2 nanowires or Au dendritic nanostructures?

A simple and low-cost approach for the large-scale production of Au nanodendritic structures on Si is presented. Starting from the methodology involving deposition of a Au film on Si and heating the system to high temperatures in an inert ambient containing trace amounts of oxygen for the growth of SiO2 nanowires (NWs), we show that a suppression of the NWs growth and a promotion of the growth of Au nanodendrites occur when fast heating and cooling rates are used. We analyze the nanodendrites formation process considering the kinetics processes at the Au/Si interface in far from thermodynamic equilibrium situation.