Fabrication and characterization of metal nanostructures on metal substrates

In this paper we show an experimental procedure for fabrication of metal nanoparticle arrays on metal substrates. The nanostructures are fabricated by laser processing of thin metal films. The films are deposited on the metal substrates by classical PLD technology. The as deposited films are then annealed by nanosecond pulses delivered from a THG Nd:YAG laser system (lambda = 355 nm). At certain conditions, the laser treatment leads to a formation of discrete nanoparticle structure on the substrate surface. The optical properties of samples fabricated at different conditions and having different characteristics of the nanostructures are examined by optical spectroscopy measurement. Such analysis shows that the optical spectra of the obtained nanostructures are characterized by plasmon excitation. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) model is used for theoretical description of the near field optical properties of the fabricated nanoparticle arrays. The simulation demonstrates high efficiency of the fabricated structures in enhancement of the near field intensity. The great enhancement observed in the Raman spectra of Rhodamine 6G deposited on the fabricated samples makes such structures very appropriate for applications in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). The produced systems can be also applied in plasmonic solar cells (PSC).