Tunable In-Plane Optical Anisotropy of Ag Nanoparticles Deposited by DC Sputtering onto SiO2 Nanocolumnar Films

This work reports an easy-to-handle method for growing two-dimensional assemblies of Ag nanostructures presenting a tunable in-plane optical anisotropy. Ag is deposited by DC sputtering in an Ar plasma at room temperature onto bundled nanocolumnar SiO2 thin films grown by glancing angle physical vapor deposition. In contrast with previously reported processes involving the grazing angle…