Nano-patterning of gold thin film by thermal annealing combined with laser interference techniques

We present an efficient method for fabrication of desired periodic metallic structures. By using the magnetron sputtering technique, the gold nano-layer was isotropically deposited onto a photoresist template, which had been previously fabricated by an interference technique. During a subsequent thermal annealing process, the gold coating layer melted and split allowing the photoresist core-template to evaporate and consequently leave a desired metal structure on the substrate surface. The proposed method exhibits advantages such as simplicity and low cost, which allows one to realize large-area plasmonic structures that are very promising for numerous applications, especially plasmonic-based photonic devices.