Plasmonic nanostructures fabricated using nanosphere-lithography, soft-lithography and plasma etching

• Manuel R. Gonçalves,
• Taron Makaryan,
• Fabian Enderle,
• Stefan Wiedemann,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Othmar Marti and
• Paul Ziemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 448–458, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.49

• can be utilized in experiments requiring light confinement. Keywords: nanosphere-lithography; near-field enhancement; plasma etching; soft-lithography; surface plasmons; Introduction Classical electromagnetic theories describing optical transmission through small apertures [1][2] do not take into

• account the role of surface plasmons on metal films. In contrast to the predictions of these theories, enhanced optical transmission (EOT) was found for arrays of holes in metal films [3]. The transmission enhancements were attributed to the surface plasmons excited in the array [4]. This discovery

• triggered extensive research on nanostructures that support surface plasmons, namely, nanocavities on metal films, arrays of interacting metal particles and gratings. The coupling between light and localized surface plasmons on metal nanostructures that have been favorably tailored leads to a variety of