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Fabrication of Gold Thin Films on Cooled Glass Substrates

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Abstract

In this article, gold (Au) thin films were fabricated on glass substrates under vacuum conditions (4.5 × 10−6 Torr) within a temperature range of 100–300 K, incrementing in steps of 50 K. Analyses through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) revealed that at a substrate temperature of 230 K, the films featured spherical clusters of uniform size, e.g., 11–12 nm, suggesting that the soliton growth mechanism predominates at this temperature. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) further demonstrated that the average surface roughness (Ra) of the Au films varied with the substrate temperature, ranging from 1.2 to 4.7 nm, with the smoothest film observed at 230 K. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that all films exhibited a cubic crystal structure oriented in the (111) plane. Optical analyses indicated that the films produced across the entire substrate temperature spectrum showed surface plasmon excitation within the 520–600 nm wavelength range. To excite surface plasmons at longer wavelengths, the Au film fabricated at 230 K was annealed at 773 K under vacuum conditions for an hour, enlarging the grain size to ~ 15 nm. Post-annealing, optical measurements revealed a 70-nm shift in the peak position of the plasmonic resonance to a longer wavelength of 650 nm, showcasing the tunable nature of the plasmonic effects through thermal processing.

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Funding

This study was carried out within the scope of Erciyes University, Scientific Research Projects Unit Project No. FDK-2022-12367 and with the support of TÜBİTAK 2211/C National PhD Scholarship Program in the Priority Fields in Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Erciyes University, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey

    Melih Manir & Gamze Genç

  2. Energy Systems Engineering Program, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Erciyes University, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey

    Melih Manir

  3. Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, 53100, Rize, Turkey

    Melih Manir & Vagif Nevruzoglu

  4. Department of Physics, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, 53100, Rize, Turkey

    Murat Tomakin

  5. Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Balcova, 35340, Izmir, Turkey

    Arif E. Cetin

  6. Energy Conversion Research and Application Center, Erciyes University, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey

    Gamze Genç

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  1. Melih Manir
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  2. Gamze Genç
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  3. Vagif Nevruzoglu
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  4. Murat Tomakin
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Contributions

M.M., G.G., V.N., M.T., and A.E.C. fabricated, and performed the optical and material characterization of the films. All authors prepared and reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Melih Manir.

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Manir, M., Genç, G., Nevruzoglu, V. et al. Fabrication of Gold Thin Films on Cooled Glass Substrates. Plasmonics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-024-02302-8

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