Synthesis of Ultra-Thin Gold Nanosheets Composed of Steadily Linked Dense Nanoparticle Arrays Using Magnetron Sputtering

Magnetron sputtering and lift-off processes have been used to fabricate novel ultra-thin gold nanosheets that are dissolved in acetone. Such nanosheets, with dimensions such as the average width of several hundreds nanometers and thickness of a few nanometers, are composed of dense array of gold nanoparticles sized around 5 nm. These steadily linked gold nanoparticles strongly couple to surface plasmon resonance in a wide wavelength range. This composite nanostructure is found different from the conventional nanoparticles, and its optical properties have shown great potential in biochemical sensing and imaging, catalyst and processing application.