Templated assembly of metal nanoparticle films on polymer substrates

• Main Authors: Waters, R. F., Ohtsu, A., Naya, M., Hobson, P. A., Macdonald, K. F., Zheludev, Nikolay I.
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Diffraction gratings; Nanoparticles
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83598; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42669
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We report on directed self-assembly of ordered, vapor-deposited gallium nanoparticles on surface-relief-structured polymer substrates. Grating templates impose periodic order in one dimension, most effectively when the grating half-period is of the order of the mean unperturbed center-to-center particle spacing for a given mass-thickness of Ga. Self-organized order also emerges in the perpendicular direction as a consequence of the liquid-phase particles' nucleation, growth, and coalescence on the ridges of the grating pattern in relative isolation from the adjacent slots, and vice versa.