Fabrication of Orderly Copper Particle Arrays on a Multi-Electrolyte-Step Anodic Aluminum Oxide Template.

A multi-electrolyte-step (MES) anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) method was used to achieve nanochannel arrays with good circularity and periodic structure. The nano-channel array fabrication process included immersion in a phosphoric acid solution with a 120-150 bias voltage. Bowl-shaped structures were then formed by removing the walls of the nano-channel arrays. The nanochannel arrays were grown from the bottom of the bowl structure in an oxalic solution using a 50V bias voltage. A comparison of this new MES process with the one-step and five-step AAO process showed a 50% improvement in the circularity over the onestep process. The standard deviation of the average period in the MES array was 25 nm which is less than that of one-step process. This MES method also took 1/4 of the growing time of the five-step process. The orderliness of the nano-channel arrays for the five-step and MES process was similar. Finally, Cu nanoparticle arrays with a 200 nm period were grown using an electroplating process inside the MES nano-channel arrays on fluorine doped tin oxide glass. Stronger surface plasmon resonance absorption from 550 nm to 750nm was achieved with the MES process than was possible with the one-step process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]