Rayleigh‐instability‐driven dewetting of thin Au and Ag films on indium–tin‐oxide surface under nanosecond laser irradiations

Investigations have been carried out on laser‐beam‐induced nanoparticle (NP) formation in thin (5 nm) Au and Ag films on indium–tin‐oxide substrate. After the irradiation the films were observed to break‐up into NPs through a dewetting mechanism. This mechanism was investigated as a Rayleigh‐instability‐driven process. In fact, for each used laser fluence, the resulting Au and Ag NPs' mean size and surface‐to‐surface mean distance were quantified and correlated between them in the framework of the Rayleigh‐instability theory showing an excellent agreement.