A stem study of a platinum deposit on an amorphous carbon film: The effects of contact voltage in the nucleation process

Abstract Platinum clusters evaporated on an amorphous carbon film were used to study the nucleation process. The distribution of diameters, edge-to-edge distances, and the population of the clusters was measured using a high resolution scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) together with digital image processing techniques. Our results seem to imply that the contact voltage between a cluster and the substrate plays a very important role in the process of the nucleation and growth of the film.