Structure analysis and models for optical constants of discontinuous metallic silver films

General approach to reliable characterization of thin metal films

“…Metal clusters usually have elliptical shapes and the surface plasmon resonance depends on the light polarization, becoming sensitive to the angle of incidence. Even for a film of spherical particles, a slight anisotropy can be expected due to different particle interactions depending on light polarization [43,44]. On the whole, there is a good agreement of the obtained characterization results with spectral photometric measurements.…”

“…This resonance increases in intensity as the amount of deposited metal increases; that can be explained by a higher filling fraction of silver in the metal-dielectric composite [23,42]. The shift to higher wavelengths can be related also to the higher metal filling fraction and to the fact that larger clusters usually present a more elliptical shape than smaller clusters [43]. Additionally, a small absorption peak can be identified in the short wavelength range for all the samples, which can be attributed to interband transitions of silver [21].…”

Optical and structural properties of Au-Ag islands films for plasmonic applications

“…In addition, the average interparticle distance (D) can be estimated from the position of the maximum of scattered light 10 . As observed previously in metal island films 11 , samples deposited at room temperature show a more elliptical shape and smaller size than those deposited at hot substrates. Upon annealing, particle size and interparticle distance increases, indicating the particle growth.…”

Laser-deposited silver island films: an investigation of their structure, optical properties and SERS activity

“…12 In this respect, sputtered or thermally evaporated island Ðlms on transparent dielectric substrates are convenient for comprehensive characterization with di †er-ent methods. A detailed study of the structural and optical properties of evaporated thin Ðlms of di †erent mass thickness by means of TEM and UVÈVIS spectroscopy was performed by Singer et al 13 Van Duyne et al14 coupled quantitative measurements of the SERS enhancement factor for Ag island Ðlms and Ag Ðlms over polymer nanospheres with AFM data and interpreted the results in terms of the electromagnetic theory of SERS. The e †ect of annealing on the optical properties, surface structure and SERS e †ectivity of thin evaporated silver Ðlms was extensively studied by Maskevich and co-workers by means of AFM and UVÈVIS spectroscopy.…”