Waveguide plasmon resonance of arrayed metallic nanostructures patterned on a soft substrate by direct contact printing lithography

This paper presents a direct contact printing method to obtain arrayed metallic nanostructures on a soft polymer substrate. It utilizes a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold replicated from silicon molds to transfer metallic nanopatterns onto a polymer substrate based on differences in interfacial bonding energy. Arrayed metallic nanodisks with a disk diameter down to 180 nm and a center-to-center pitch around 400 nm are experimentally patterned on a PET substrate. The patterned metallic nanostructures are then spin-coated with a polymer layer; which mechanically secures the patterned nanostructures and optically allows waveguide plasmon resonance being excited by incident EM waves. Both experimental works and theoretical modeling are given to illustrate the behaviors of different types of plasmon resonance. These arrayed metallic nanostructures patterned on a soft polymer substrate and their tunable optical characteristics open up many possibilities in future engineering applications.