Chemical Treatment and Thermal Dewetting Process for Nanofabrication of Platinum Nano-Islands on Quartz Substrate

An efficient nanofabrication method for producing platinum (Pt) nano-islands on quartz substrates is demonstrated through a combination of chemical surface modification and thermal dewetting method. Quartz substrates were first chemically treated with Ethanol (C<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>H<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</inf>OH) to modify the surface properties and enhance film-substrate interaction. A thin platinum film was then deposited via sputtering process, followed by thermal annealing at controlled temperatures to induce dewetting and form well-defined nano-islands. The effects of annealing temperature on the morphology of the nano-islands were systematically investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the plasmonic properties of the Pt nano-islands are evaluated using UV-visible spectroscopy. The potential of the fabricated Pt nano-islands as plasmonic biosensing was demonstrated through the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance property (LSPR). Our results highlight the promising application of Pt nano-islands as efficient and sensitive platforms with enhanced plasmonic properties.