title: Optical Characterization of Gold Nanoparticle Layers Formed on Plastic Microbeads.
abstract: Generally, the characterization of a metal layer formed on a planar substrate has been achieved using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. These techniques provide details of the surface and/or the cross-section of a planar structure with high resolution. However, the evaluation of sphere-like structures is troublesome owing to the necessity to observe a sample from various angles and/or to calculate the yield from many values obtained for many samples, since the conventional methods can observe a sample only from one direction. We have developed a simple evaluation method for a thin metal layer on plastic microbeads based on its light-scattering properties using dark-field microscopy coupled with a spectrometer. The light-scattering intensity of gold-nanoparticle-coated microbeads depends significantly on the gold coverage. We believe that our study is significant because it describes the development and evaluation of the surface coverage of a thin metal layer on a sphere-like microstructure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Osaka Prefecture University.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shiigi
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Xueling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terabe
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mihashi
authors.forename: Yojiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagaoka