Lithography-free fabrication of large-area plasmonic nanostructures using colloidal gold nanoparticles

We report simple and efficient fabrication of large-area gold nanostructures using solution-processible gold nanoparticles, where lithography and vacuum evaporation techniques are not involved in the fabrication processes. These gold nanoisland structures exhibit strong particle plasmon resonance that is characterized by optical extinction spectroscopy in the visible spectral range. The tunability of the optical response is realized by controlling the annealing temperature and by changing the concentration of the colloidal solutions of gold nanoparticles. This enables a low-cost route for exploiting new photonic devices, biosensors, and optoelectronic devices with localized field-enhancement.