Superplastic Formation of Metal Nanostructure Arrays with Ultrafine Gaps

Laser shock compression of plasmonic nanoarrays results in ultrafine tunable line-gaps at sub-10 nm scale by collaborative superplastic flow. From molecular dynamics analysis, the metal nanostructures change from crystalline to liquid-like metals, expanding quickly but never fusing together, even when they are very close. This technique enables good tunability of surface plasmon resonances and significantly enhanced local fields.