Fabrication of gold micro/nanostructures by femtosecond laser direct writing and chemical etching

In this paper, we report gold micro/nanostructures fabricated by a method called lithographically patterned nanostructure by chemical etching (LPNCE). In the LPNCE method, the photoresist layer, composed of pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA, monomer) and isopropyl thioxanthone (ITX, photoinitiator), is dropped on gold film, and subsequently polymerized via two-photon absorption of 800 nm femtosecond laser. Micro/nanostructures are fabricated by the direct laser writing. The unpolymerized photoresist is washed by isopropanol, and the exposed gold is dissolved by KI₃ aqueous solution. Finally, polymers are removed by NaOH ethanol solution. Arbitrary 2D gold micro/nanostructures can be fabricated quickly by the direct laser writing and chemical etching method. The good electro-conductibility of these micro/nanostructures guarantees wide applications in micro-electronic devices, plasmonics and biosensors, etc.