Deposition of plasmon gold-fluoropolymer nanocomposites

Degradation-resistant two-dimensional metal-fluoropolymer composites consisting of gold nanoparticles coated with a thin fluoropolymer film were deposited on a substrate by hot wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) and ion sputtering. The morphology and optical properties of the obtained coatings were determined. The thickness of the thin fluoropolymer film was found to influence the position of the surface plasmon resonance peak. Numerical calculations of the optical properties of the deposited materials were performed using Mie theory and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The calculation results are consistent with the experimental data. The study shows that the position of the resonance peak can be controlled by changing the surface concentration of particles and the thickness of the fluoropolymer coating. The protective coating was found to prevent the plasmonic properties of the nanoparticles from changing for several months.