Tailoring the Optical Properties of Sputter-Deposited Gold Nanostructures on Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide Templates Based on In Situ Grazing-Incidence Small-Angle X-ray Scattering Determined Growth Laws

Gold/titanium dioxide (Au/TiO 2 ) nanohybrid materials have been widely applied in various fields because of their outstanding optical and photocatalytic performance. By state-of-the-art polymer templating, it is possible to make uniform nanostructured TiO 2 layers with potentially large-scale processing methods. We use customized polymer templating to achieve TiO 2 nanostructures with different morphologies. Au/TiO 2 hybrid thin films are fabricated by sputter deposition. An in-depth understanding of the Au morphology on the TiO 2 templates is achieved with in situ grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) during the sputter deposition. The resulting Au nanostructure is largely influenced by the TiO 2 template morphology. Based on the detailed understanding of the Au growth process, characteristic distances can be selected to achieve tailored Au nanostructures at different Au loadings. For selected sputter-deposited Au/TiO 2 hybrid thin films, the optical response with a tailored localized surface plasmon resonance is demonstrated.