Deposition of copper into thin ice buffer layers on MgO(1 0 0) produces uniform and sinter-resistant nanoparticles

Noncontact variable temperature atomic force microscopy has been employed to study the deposition of copper onto thin layers of ice formed on a MgO(1 0 0) surface. Deposition of submonolayer coverages of copper onto an ice modified oxide surface at 100 K, followed by annealing to 300 K, produces uniform nanometer-sized copper particles on the MgO surface. Copper particles resulting from a 0.5 monolayer deposition possess an average diameter of 7 nm and an average height of 0.3 nm. Further studies reveal that this buffer-layer-assisted deposition process produces a coverage-dependent density of particles with a narrow size distribution and a resistance to sintering for temperatures up to 750 K.