A gas deposition technique was employed to prepare thin films composed of ytterbium nanoparticles on a glass substrate. The influence of deposition conditions such as deposition temperature, time and gas pressure was studied in detail.
In addition to an ordinary inert gas such as He, the possible use of N2 was investigated. As a result of combined analysis using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and x-ray reflectivity it was found that spherical nanoparticles of around 1–140 nm in diameter can be obtained.