Gold Nanostructures Sputtered on Zinc Oxide Thin Film and Corning Glass Substrates

Forming of Au nanostructures on Corning glass substrates and transparent conductive oxide ZnO:Al thin films by the RF diode sequential sputtering is presented. The morphology of Au structures was analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the free ImageJ software, the optical properties were evaluated by UV-Vis spectrometry and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The sputtering power density (deposition rate) and nominal Au thickness caused changes in the sizes (10 - 1000 nm2) and nearest neighbour NN distances (4 - 40 nm) of Au nanostructures. The morphology of nanostructures exhibited the LogNormal distribution of the size of nanostructures. The lowest sputtering power density/deposition rate (9 mW/mm2/0.12 nm s-1) was optimal to get both the high optical transparency and a superior activity surface-enhanced Raman scattering of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid adsorbed on the Au/ZnO:Al film.