AFM reconstruction of complex-shaped chiral plasmonic nanostructures

• Published in: Ultramicroscopy Vol. 181; pp. 81 - 85
• Main Authors: Kondratov, A.V., Rogov, O.Y., Gainutdinov, R.V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.10.2017
• Subjects: Atomic force microscopy; Focused ion beam; Plasmonic structures; Post-processing; Atomic force microscopy; Post-processing; Plasmonic structures; Focused ion beam
• ISSN: 0304-3991; 1879-2723
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2017.05.013

•A consistent approach for plasmonic nanostructure shape reconstruction is proposed.•Unit cell shape of a chiral metamaterial with a high aspect ratio was resolved.•The approach involves imaging using tilted AFM probe and customized post-processing.•Final averaged unit cell is combined of best resolved parts of multiple images. A significant part of the optical metamaterial phenomena has the plasmonic nature and their investigation requires very accurate knowledge of the fabricated structures shape with a focus on the periodical features. We describe a consistent approach to the shape reconstruction of the plasmonic nanostructures. This includes vertical and tilted spike AFM probes fabrication, AFM imaging and specific post-processing. We studied a complex-shaped chiral metamaterial and conclude that the described post-processing routine extends possibilities of the existing deconvolution algorithms in the case of periodical structures with known rotational symmetry, by providing valuable information about periodical features.