Abstract
This work utilizes atomic force microscopy nanolithography to fabricate gold nanodot and nanowire arrays on silicon substrates, and dark-field optical microscopy to investigate their localized surface plasmon resonance characteristics. For an obtained gold nanodot array, the average diameter is around 50 nm after thermal treatment. For the gold nanowire arrays, the thickness is 15 □ 20 nm and the widths are ranging between 50 and 100 nm. The scattering spectra are composed of two resonance peaks in the blue and the red regions. It is also found that when the width is increased, the red peak experiences a red shift, whereas the blue peak remains unchanged. It is clear that the two peaks can be attributed to resonances along the thickness and width directions of the nanowires. Furthermore, 1-Dodecanethiol, 1-Octadecanethiol, and 16-Mercaptohexadecanoic acid are chosen to perform gold nanowire surface modification respectively; the result indicates the sensitivity of gold nanowires to local dielectric environment change.