Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 82: Plasmonics and Nanooptics: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications II

O 82.8: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2025, 12:15–12:30, H8

Nanophotonics of ultra-thin gold flakes — •Gayathri Haridas, Farid Aghashirinov, Julian Schwab, Bettina Frank, and Harald Giessen — 4-th Physics Institute, University of Stuttgart, Germany

In our work, we focus on fabricating ultrathin single-crystalline gold platelets using an electrochemical synthesis approach. This process involves the reduction of gold atoms from the electrode surface to form gold ions, which then nucleate as seeds and grow into well-defined crystalline platelets. By systematically adjusting and controlling the growth parameters, we aim to optimize the synthesis conditions to achieve reproducible and stable fabrication of platelets with precise control over their lateral size and thickness. The characterization of the synthesized platelets is carried out using spectroscopic techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), to understand the surface morphologies and height profiles of the crystals.

The primary objective is to reduce the thickness of platelets to the single-digit nanometer scale while maintaining their lateral sizes. At this regime, the gold platelets exhibit unique optical and electrical properties that are highly sensitive to their size. This arises from the quantization of electronic states. We are particularly interested in probing these quantum effects, which can give rise to further research in the field of quantum plasmonics and thereby establishing gold as a suitable platform for it.

Keywords: Single crystalline gold platelets; Electrochemical synthesis; Light-matter interactions; Atomic force microscopy; Quantum plasmonics