Abstract
In this study, gold nanoislands thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on quartz substrates at different substrate temperatures of 25, 300, 450, and 600 °C. A thin (4-5 nm) Pd film, as hydrogen catalyst over-layer, was sputter deposited on Au films. PLD at 25 and 300 °C led to semi-continuous surface morphology consisting of very fine-grained aggregates, and at 450 and 600 °C to spherical Au NPs. UV-Vis spectrometry showed localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption at 732, 606, 586, and 560 nm for room temperature (R.T.), 300, 450, and 600 °C, respectively. FESEM revealed that hydrogen (10%) exposure induces surface stress leading to Au nanoislands separation. UV-Vis spectrophotometry showed a spectral blue-shift for the LSPR peak attributed to the plasmon coupling effect. Results showed that at various hydrogen concentration of 0 to 10%, films deposited at R.T. provides the most LSPR shift. Overall, we showed that plasmon coupling of PLD derived gold thin films is a suitable tool for accurate detection of hydrogen gas.
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