Laser-induced formation of periodic structures in plasma deposited polymer films containing Au, Ag, and Cu nanoparticles

Thin polymer films containing metal nanoparticles were irradiated with linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses. The resulting laser-induced periodic modification of the nanoparticle assemblies was studied by using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The structure period LAMBDA is correlated with the applied laser wavelength lambda by LAMBDA = 0.7 lambda. The effect was observed for gold, silver and copper nanoparticles. Optical spectra of the laser-irradiated films show a clear dichroism.