Metals

Size-dependent optical properties of aluminum nanoparticle arrays formed by vacuum-thermal deposition

O. P. Gorelkov, L. S. Volkova, T. S. Grishin, A. O. Kozlov, A. Yu. Trifonov, A. V. Pavlikov, I. V. Lavrov, S. V. Dubkov, A. V. Anikin, D. G. Gromov

National Research University of Electronic Technology

Abstract: The processes of aluminum nanoparticle (Al-NPs) array formation by vacuum-thermal evaporation and condensation at a substrate temperature of 150$^\circ$C were studied using SEM, TEM and ellipsometry methods. It was shown that the particles in the array have a flattened shape, and their average size in the array depends linearly on the amount of deposited aluminum. Experimental spectral dependences of the refractive index, extinction coefficients and transmittance of Al arrays coated with a SiO$_2$ layer were obtained. Experimental data were compared with the results of modeling the Al-NPs/SiO$_2$ composite material using the Maxwell-Garnett approximation and its generalization. It is shown that an important factor determining the spectral optical characteristics of the Al-NPs/SiO$_2$ composite material is the non-uniformity of Al nanoparticle shape in the array.

Keywords: plasmon resonance, aluminum, nanoparticles, electron beam evaporation, ellipsometry, optical properties.

Received: 15.08.2025
Revised: 15.08.2025
Accepted: 28.08.2025

DOI: 10.61011/FTT.2025.09.61612.231-25

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