Cluster ion beam assisted fabrication of metallic nanostructures for plasmonic applications

We report a high-throughput, single-step method for fabricating rippled plasmonic nanostructure arrays via self-assembly induced by oblique angle cluster ion beam irradiation of metal surfaces. This approach does not require lithographic or chemical processes and has the prominent advantage of possible large surface area coverage and applicability to different starting materials. The polarization dependent plasmonic property of the gold nano-ripple is due to their one dimension structure. The localized plasmon resonance frequency of synthesized nano-ripple arrays is tunable by changing nano-ripple dimensions that can be engineered by changing the cluster ion beam irradiation parameters. In this specific case presented, using 30 keV Ar-gas cluster ion beam, we fabricate gold nano-ripple arrays that show localized plasmon resonance in the visible range through near IR range, tunable by varying cluster ion irradiation fluence.