Plasmonic metallic nanostructures by direct nanoimprinting of gold nanoparticles

We demonstrated the plasmonic metallic nanostructure fabricated by direct nanoimprinting of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This approach combines the patterning and lift-off processes into a simple one-step process without the need for expensive patterning lithographies and the stringent requirement of the lift-off process for nanostructures. Good imprinting integrity was accomplished with a negligible residual layer. The dynamic optical responses of the imprinted gold pillars from AuNPs to the bulk material during the annealing process were investigated. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties of AuNPs or gold pillar arrays can be controlled and tuned during the annealing process. The sensitivity of the gold pillar array in terms of the wavelength shift per refractive index unit (RIU) reached 259 nm/RIU. The size of the imprinted gold pillars is highly scalable in our process. The corresponding resonance wavelengths can be widely tuned from the visible to infrared region by changing the size of the gold pillars, thus providing a wide range of sensing capability. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America