Altering the dewetting characteristics of ultrathin gold and silver films using a sacrificial antimony layer

Solid state dewetting of ultrathin films is the most straightforward means of fabricating substrate-supported noble metal nanostructures. This assembly process is, however, quite inflexible, yielding either densely packed smaller structures or widely spaced larger structures. Here, we demonstrate the utility of introducing a sacrificial antimony layer between the substrate and noble metal overlayer. We observe an agglomeration process which is radically altered by the concurrent sublimation of antimony. In stark contrast with conventional dewetting, where the thickness of the deposited metal film determines the characteristic length scales of the assembly process, it is the thickness of the sacrificial antimony layer which dictates both the nanoparticle size and interparticle spacing. The result is a far more flexible self-assembly process where the nanoparticle size and areal density can be varied widely. Demonstrations show nanoparticle areal densities which are varied over four orders of magnitude assembled from the identical gold layer thickness, where the accompanying changes to nanostructure size see a systematic shift in the wavelength of the localized surface plasmon resonance. As a pliable self-assembly process, it offers the opportunity to tailor the properties of an ensemble of nanostructures to meet the needs of specific applications.