Oxidation of Au/Ag films by oxygen plasma: phase separation and generation of nanoporosity by Abdel-Aziz El Mel (18952798)

“…The gold phase remaining in the film exhibited nanoporosity due to the injected vacancies at the metal/silver oxide interface. Based on the scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis coupled with energy dispersive X-ray mapping a mechanism was proposed based on solid-state diffusion and the Kirkendall effect to explain the different steps occurring during the oxidation process.…”