Abstract
Nanoparticle gold films were deposited using femtosecond laser ablation in argon at atmospheric pressure in an arrangement where a flat Au target was irradiated through a transparent substrate in close proximity. Spatially extended films were made by rastering the target and substrate assembly together in the laser beam. Fast imaging clearly showed pronounced narrowing of the ablation plume, which can be understood in terms of laser induced multiphoton ionisation and heating of the gas near the ablation site. Deposition was possible for target-substrate separation up to 2 mm. The equivalent thickness of the nanoparticle film was controlled in the range 0.4–28 nm by changing the target-substrate separation and the shot-to-shot spacing of ablation spot raster. The mean Feret diameter varied in the range 14–40 nm depending on the deposition conditions, and all the films showed a surface plasmon resonance at about 525 nm, which was nearly independent of the equivalent thickness. The technique can readily be applied to other materials for the fabrication of nanoparticulate films at atmospheric pressure.
Highlights
There is continuing interest in the preparation and characterisation of nanostructured metal films with feature sizes in the range 1–100 nm. This interest is due to the many novel properties which arise when the dimensions of a solid material are reduced to the point where the particle contains tens to a few thousands of atoms [1]
Andrea et al [3] and Smyth et al [10] have investigated the deposition of Ag NPs using ns-pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in a low pressure background gas and vacuum respectively, and demonstrated the utility of the films produced for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)
This paper describes the results of an experimental investigation of confined atmospheric pulsed laser deposition (APLD) in Ar using target-substrate separations up to 2 mm, and a fs laser to irradiate the target through the transparent
Summary
There is continuing interest in the preparation and characterisation of nanostructured metal films with feature sizes in the range 1–100 nm. Alfonso et al (Ag and Cu on sapphire) [5,6], Dolbec et al (Pt on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite) [4], Donnelly et al (Ag and Au on glass, polymer and Si) [7,8] and Seal et al (Ag on Si) [9] have all investigated PLD of metal NP films using nanosecond (ns) lasers in vacuum or low pressure background gases (
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