A. Gibaud¹, S. Hazra¹, C. Sella², P. Laffez¹, A. Desert¹, A. Naudon³ and G. Van Tendeloo^4
1 Laboratoire de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, UPRESA 6087 CNRS, Faculté des Sciences, Université du Maine, 72085 Le Mans, France
² Laboratoire d'Optique des Solides, Université de Paris VI, 75006 Paris, France
³ Laboratoire de Metallurgie Physique, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France
⁴ EMAT, University of Antwerp (RUCA), Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium

Experiments performed by x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on a cosputtered nanocermet thin film of Pt-Al₂O₃ are presented. It is shown that the morphology of such a heterogeneous material can be well interpreted by combining the information obtained from the three techniques. In particular, the layering of metal nanoparticles in the immediate vicinity of the substrate is clearly evidenced. GISAXS results are interpreted via a model which yields spherical nanoparticles of diameter, 2R = 3.1 nm, separated on the average by a distance of 5.8 nm. The evidence for the layering of particles close to the substrate is deduced form the analysis of the specular reflectivity and probed directly by TEM.