Two-stage evaporated ordered nanoporous ultrathin metal films using reusable template

Abstract

In this work, we present a versatile procedure for the formation of ordered nanoporous ultrathin metal film using reusable anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. Firstly, the Ag and Au films were evaporated on the bottom surface of AAO template sequentially, followed by selective removal of a sacrificial Ag film. This process results in an ultrathin nanoporous Au film was prepared without causing significant damage of the AAO replication template. The characterizations of SEM images indicate that obtained metal films have the hexagonal morphology similar to AAO template. The EDS analyses of the present Au film on the Si substrate indicate that Ag film was completely etched away. This novel fabrication method not only simplifies the preparation of ordered nanoporous ultrathin metal film, but also can be readily extended to other materials systems.