Nanostructured Au film produced by pulsed laser deposition in air at atmospheric pressure

This work presents results on direct nanostructured film fabrication by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of gold in air at atmospheric pressure. Due to specific features of the laser-induced plume evolution at these conditions, the deposited film has a porous structure composed of well defined nanoparticles aggregates. The study based on scanning and transmission electron microscopy images of the deposited material at different processing conditions reveals that these nanoparticle aggregates are formed into the ablated plume due to intensive collisions. The obtained structures show characteristic optical spectra related to excitation of plasmons and can be directly used in practical applications as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and sensors devices.