Molecular dynamics and experimental study of the dewetting behaviors of discontinuous metal films

Metal nanofilms and their dewetting behaviors are widely investigated due to the applications in science and industry. However, the random rupture in dewetting process makes it difficult to compare between experimental and simulational results, and further clarify the mechanism. Hence, we focus on the discontinuous metal films which can achieve controllable rupture in the dewetting process. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) is selected as the substrate to create nanopore-structured silver film to investigate the dewetting mechanisms of discontinuous metal nanofilms under different conditions. The impact of three specific annealing factors on the dewetting process is validated through experiments involving the sputtering of silver nanofilms on AAO surfaces. Furthermore, we propose dimension analysis to make a comparison between experimental and simulated data, which verifies the accuracy of existing molecular dynamics model in the dewetting behavior of discontinous metal nanofilm.