Efficient formation of surface relief grating on azopolymer films by gold nanoparticles

Abstract

This paper reports a method for the efficient formation of surface relief grating (SRG) on azopolymer films in which gold nanoparticles are dispersed. The height and shape of the SRG, which were formed by a two-beam interference technique, were found to be dependent on the content of gold nanoparticles. The optimum concentration of gold nanoparticles for the efficient formation of SRG was confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the height of SRG at the content of 0.06 wt % was about 2.2 times higher than that of pure azopolymer film without gold nanoparticles. This is due to the field enhancement effect derived from the localized plasmon excitations of gold nanoparticles dispersed in the azopolymer film.