Self-organization-based fabrication of stable noble-metal nanostructures on large-area dielectric substrates

A cost-effective fabrication of random noble-metal nanostructures with a feature size of the order of 10 nm on a large-area dielectric substrate is described. the method combines dry etching of the substrate through a self-organized metal mask with a directional deposition of a multilayered metal film. the technique allows one to create metal nanoislands on a nanopatterned dielectric template with an enhanced adhesion between the metal and the dielectric. the use of the adhesion layer - that makes the structures stable - is important in view of variety of optical and other potential applications of the structures. we observe that the presence of the adhesion sublayer dramatically influences both the morphological and optical properties of the structures. the results of this work can be of interest in regard to the development of new approaches to self-organization-based nanofabrication of extremely small metal and metal-dielectric nanostructures on large-area substrates. © 2013 victor ovchinnikov and andriy shevchenko.