Plasmonic photocatalysis and SERS sensing using ellipsometrically modeled Ag nanoisland substrates

Silver nanoislands are key platforms for plasmonic photocatalysis, SERS sensing and optical metamaterials due to their localized surface plasmon resonances. The low intrinsic loss in Ag enables high local electromagnetic field enhancements. Solution-based fabrication techniques, while cheap, result in highly non-reproducible plasmonic substrates with wide sample-to-sample variability in geometry, optical resonances and Q-factors. Herein, we present a non-lithographic method of forming silver nanoislands based on sputter deposition of Ag films followed by elevated temperature annealing to induce spontaneous dewetting. The resulting plasmonic substrates show reproducible, well-defined LSPR resonances with high ensemble Q-factors whose optical properties could be modeled using spectroscopic ellipsometry to yield n and k values across the visible range. UV-Vis-NIR, and XRD analyses define the optical and crystallographic characteristics of the Ag nanoisland samples. FESEM was utilized to discern the geometry and architecture of the Ag nanoisland as well as their uniformity and monodispersity. Our vacuum deposited Ag nanoislands demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity for the transformation of 4-nitrobenzenethiol (4-NBT) and 4-aminothiophenol (PATP) into p,p'-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB).