Fabrication of an ordered nanodot array by thermal dewetting on a patterned substrate

A new process to fabricate an ordered gold nanodot array by thermal dewetting on a patterned substrate is proposed in this paper. Its feasibility was demonstrated through the experiments. The process comprises three steps; fabrication of a square nano-grooves grid on a substrate by nano-plastic forming, deposition of a thin gold film on the patterned substrate, and annealing the metal coated substrate to form an ordered nanodot array. The effects of the thickness of the deposited metal film on the morphology of nanodot array are studied. It is found that a nanodot array of good uniformity and regularity is obtained by optimizing the gold film thickness. It is verified that patterning of groove grid on a substrate is effective to improve the uniformity and regularity of the nanodot array in the thermal dewetting process.