Combinatorial growth of multinary nanostructured thin functional films

Abstract: The rapid generation of material libraries with multidimensional gradients is important for the discovery of new functional materials. Here we report an integrated fabrication scheme, based on glancing angle physical vapor deposition, to form a thin-film materials library with controlled variations in nanoshape, multinary composition, and oxidation state on a single large area substrate. We demonstrate the versatility of the method by growing an octonary materials system, which we characterize with high-throughput methods, and reveal variations in several physico-chemical properties. Among others, we examine the materials library in the frame of the oxygen evolution reaction and show that nanostructuring leads to NiO clusters that are active towards such a reaction. Our scheme can be readily extended to include more starting elements, and can be transferred to other deposition methods, making this an adaptable and versatile platform for combinatorial materials science.