Influence of amorphous zinc oxide on structural changes in a gold nanolayer after annealing

This study aimed to investigate the impact of an amorphous zinc oxide nanolayer, approximately 5 nm thick, on the results of surface plasmon resonance measurements of the air refractive index and to assess structural changes in the underlying gold nanolayer before and after annealing. We compared the properties of the samples after annealing under two conditions: one with only the gold nanolayer in its as-deposited state on the substrate, and another with an additional amorphous zinc oxide nanolayer on top. The findings revealed that during the concurrent formation of zinc oxide via sol-gel technology on gold nanofilms and annealing at 773 K for 30 min, the zinc oxide formed an amorphous film with a thickness of 5 nm. This layer effectively protected the gold from oxidation and significantly reduced microdeformation levels from 1.51 % to 0.005 %. The surface roughness of this film was measured at 5 Å.