Carbon as a particle-transfer material in hole-mask colloidal lithography

In this thesis a method for fabrication and optimization of the gold nanodisc dimer structure was developed. In particular, a new nanofabrication strategy using carbon nanocones as transfer material for placing a particle of interest (palladium (Pd) in this work) in the plas-monic “hot-spot” of the dimer gap was realized by means of hole-mask colloidal lithography (HCL). Series of samples with various gap sizes, gold disc sizes and Pd particle sizes/positions in the hot-spot were successfully fabrica-ted and characterized by scanning electron microscopy and spectrophotometry. The possibility to plasmonically probe a nanoparticle located in the gap of the dimers was investigated in a mass flow reactor system by monitoring the hydride formation in Pd. The long term vision motiva-ting this work is to facilitate the understanding and development of plasmonic sensing at a single nanoparticle level by providing a novel versatile nanofabrication tool based on a bottom-up self-assembly strategy