Effective permittivity of ultrathin chemical vapor deposited gold films on optical fibers at infrared wavelengths

The geometry- and size-dependent effective medium properties of ultrathin gold films deposited on the bare cladding of single mode optical fibers by chemical vapor deposition are characterized by measuring the polarized transmission spectra of in-fiber gratings at wavelengths near 1550 nm. The real part of the complex refractive indices of films with average thicknesses ranging from 6 to 65 nm are about 10 times higher than that of bulk gold at these wavelengths, while the imaginary part values are 2 orders of magnitude lower. The films are essentially isotropic, apart from a small increasing dichroism between the in-plane and out-of-plane component of the imaginary part of the refractive index at thicknesses larger than 25 nm. Unlike gold films prepared by other means, the optical properties of the coatings do not converge rapidly toward bulk values at thicknesses larger than 10 nm but remain characteristic of gold films prepared by very slow physical deposition processes. The modified Clausius-Mossotti theory for anisotropic structures was used to confirm that the observed properties arise from a persistent granularity of the film at larger thicknesses, with metal filling fractions increasing from 30% to 68% and particle aspect ratios from 0.8 to 1.0 (spherical). These conclusions are supported by nanoparticle shape measurements obtained by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscope images

Anomalous refractive index of ultrathin gold nanoparticle film coated on tilted fiber Bragg grating

Effectively size-dependent refractive index of ultrathin gold film deposited by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is experimentally investigated at infrared wavelength. By coating the gold film on tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG), the wavelength and amplitude of the TFBG cladding modes are modulated by the interaction between their evanescent fields and the gold film. Then, the complex refractive index of the gold film in in-plane and out-of-plane directions can be calculated from the effective indices of the cladding modes with azimuthally and radically polarized electric fields at cladding boundary, respectively. The obtained real parts of the complex refractive indices are about 10 times higher than that of bulk gold, for the gold films with thickness from 6 to 65 nm, while the imaginary parts are 2 orders of magnitude lower than the bulk value in the both of directions. Based on the Atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope images of the gold films with different thicknesses, the aggregation of gold nanoparticles (NPs) caused by high substrate temperature and low deposition rate is considered as the main contribution to the anomalous refractive indices

Controlling the Thermal Stability and Volatility of Organogold(I) Compounds for Vapor Deposition with Complementary Ligand Design

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of gold is being studied by multiple research groups, but to date no process using non-energetic co-reactants has been demonstrated. In order to access milder co-reactants, precursors with higher thermal stability are required. We set out to uncover how structure and bonding affect the stability and volatility of a family of twelve organogold(I) compounds using a combination of techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and density functional theory (DFT). Small, unsubstituted phosphonium ylide ligands bind more strongly to Au(I) than their silyl-substituted analogues, but the u

Lutetium coating of nanoparticles by atomic layer deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a versatile gas phase coating technique that allows coating of complex structured materials, as well as high-surface area materials such as nanoparticles. In this work, ALD is used to deposit a lutetium oxide layer on TiO2 nanoparticles (P25) in a fluidized bed reactor to produce particles for nuclear medical applications. Two precursors were tested: the commercially available Lu(TMHD)3 and the custom-made Lu(HMDS)3. Using Lu(TMHD)3, a lutetium loading up to 15 wt. % could be obtained, while using Lu(HMDS)3, only 0.16 wt. % Lu could be deposited due to decomposition of the precursor. Furthermore, it was observed that vibration-assisted fluidization allows for better fluidization of the nanoparticles and hence a higher degree of coating

Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of nanostructured gold near room temperature

A plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) process to deposit metallic gold is reported, using the previously reported Me3Au(PMe3) precursor with H2 plasma as the reactant. The process has a deposition window from 50 to 120 °C with a growth rate of 0.030 ± 0.002 nm per cycle on gold seed layers, and it shows saturating behavior for both the precursor and reactant exposure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that the gold films deposited at 120 °C are of higher purity than the previously reported ones (<1 at. % carbon and oxygen impurities and <0.1 at. % phosphorous). A low resistivity value was obtained (5.9 ± 0.3 μω cm), and X-ray diffraction measurements confirm that films deposited at 50 and 120 °C are polycrystalline. The process forms gold nanoparticles on oxide surfaces, which coalesce into wormlike nanostructures during deposition. Nanostructures grown at 120 °C are evaluated as substrates for free-space surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and exhibit an excellent enhancement factor that is without optimization, only one order of magnitude weaker than state-of-the-art gold nanodome substrates. The reported gold PE-ALD process therefore offers a deposition method to create SERS substrates that are template-free and does not require lithography. Using this process, it is possible to deposit nanostructured gold layers at low temperatures on complex three-dimensional (3D) substrates, opening up opportunities for the application of gold ALD in flexible electronics, heterogeneous catalysis, or the preparation of 3D SERS substrates