## 3 Results and Discussion  
### The Synthesis of the AgNP/TiO\({}_{2}\) Structures  
The kinetics of the SSD process depend mainly on the three factors: annealing temperature, annealing time, and initial thickness of thin films [34]. Thus, the mentioned dependencies were analyzed. The Ag thin films with an initial thickness of 10 nm were deposited on the TiO\({}_{2}\) surface and annealed at different temperatures (\(T_{a}\)): 300, 350, 400, and 450 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 60 min to observe the SSD dependence on the annealing temperature. The highest circularity of AgNPs was 0.918 (0--line, 1--perfect circle) for Ag/TiO\({}_{2}\) structures annealed at 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C, according to the analysis of the surface images of AgNP/TiO\({}_{2}\) (Figure 1). The coverage area and average diameter were 23.18% and 81.97 nm, respectively. Furthermore, the highest ordering (size distribution and coverage) of AgNPs was observed for Ag thin films annealed at 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Thus, the optimal annealing temperature for Ag thin films with an initial thickness of 10 nm is 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Furthermore, [PERSON] et al. found that thicker Ag thin films require higher annealing temperatures for the complete transition from thin films to nanoparticles through the dewetting process [35]. Based on their study, the highest ordering was achieved when Ag thin films of 10 nm thickness were annealed at 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C, while further increase in temperature resulted in agglomeration of nanoparticles to larger 3D structures.  
Further analysis of AgNPs formation was done by annealing the Ag thin films of 10 nm thickness at 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C using different annealing times, i.e., 10, 20, 40, and 60 min. (Figure 2). After 10 min of annealing, the fractal-like structure was observed. This is the result of the fingering process [36]. The Ag thin films dewetted into smaller AgNPs with an average diameter of \(\sim\)53.38 nm, when increasing the annealing time to 40 min. After 60 min of annealing, AgNPs agglomerated into bigger islands with an increased average diameter of \(\sim\)81.97 nm. Therefore, 60 min of annealing time was considered optimal for the evenly distributed formation of AgNPs.  
Given these results, further analysis was done with AgNPs obtained by annealing Ag/TiO\({}_{2}\) structures with initial Ag thin film thickness of 5, 7.5, and 10 nm at 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C temperature for 60 min. The results were AgNP/TiO\({}_{2}\) structures where the average diameters of AgNPs were 27, 38, and 82 nm, respectively (Figure 3 and Table 1). The surface resistance of the deposited Ag thin films was measured, resulting in the sheet resistance of 16.96 k\(\Omega\) for Ag thin films with a thickness of 10 nm. Thus, the Ag thin film was continuous, whereas Ag thin films with a thickness of 5 and 7.5 nm exhibited an insulat  
Figure 1: The diameter (\(d\)) distribution of AgNPs on the TiO\({}_{2}\) surface and SEM images of AgNP/TiO\({}_{2}\) structures obtained by SSD process (\(t_{a}\) = 60 min, \(h_{Ag}\) = 10 nm) at different \(T_{a}\): (**a**,**e**) 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C; (**b**,**f**) 350 \({}^{\circ}\)C; (**c**,**g**) 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C; (**d**,**h**) 450 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
The as-deposited TiO\({}_{2}\) and Ag/TiO\({}_{2}\) did not show any particular peaks (Figure 4) that are attributed to the crystal phase of TiO\({}_{2}\), except the Ag/TiO\({}_{2}\) (with initial Ag thin film thickness of 10 nm) showing the corresponding peak of Ag\(\{\)111\(\}\) facet at 38.16\({}^{\circ}\)[38]. However, after the SSD process, peaks corresponding to the TiO\({}_{2}\) anatase phase appeared at 25.43\({}^{\circ}\), 38.17\({}^{\circ}\), 48.18\({}^{\circ}\), 54.04\({}^{\circ}\), and 55.15\({}^{\circ}\), with an Ag peak at 44.44\({}^{\circ}\)[38; 39; 40]. It suggests that the amorphous-to-anatase TiO\({}_{2}\) phase transition occurred during the annealing process, which might positively affect the photocatalytic efficiency of prepared structures [41].