Crystallographic investigation of Au nanoparticles embedded in a   SrTiO$_3$ thin film for plasmonics applications by means of synchrotron   radiation
  Self-organized monocrystalline Au nanoparticles with potential applications in plasmonics are grown in a SrTiO$_3$ matrix by a novel two-step deposition process. The crystalline preferred orientation of these Au nanoparticles is investigated by synchrotron hard x-ray diffraction. Nanoparticles preferentially align with the (111) direction along the substrate normal (001), whereas two in-plane orientations are found with $[110]_{SrTiO_3} \: || \: [110]_{Au}$ and $[100]_{SrTiO_3} \: || \: [110]_{Au}$. Additionally, a smaller diffraction signal from nanoparticles with the (001) direction parallel to the substrate normal (001) is observed; once again, two in-plane orientations are found, with $[100]_{SrTiO_3} \: || \: [100]_{Au}$ and $[100]_{SrTiO_3} \: || \: [110]_{Au}$. The populations of the two in-plane orientations are found to depend on the thickness of the gold film deposited in the first step of the growth. 
Davide Pincini, Claudio Mazzoli, Hendrik Bernhardt, Christian Katzer,   Frank Schimdl, Ingo Uschmann and Carsten Detlefs
cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci physics.optics