Ultra-thin gold films on transparent polymers

Fabrication of continuous ultra-thin gold films (<10 nm) on the surface of optical polymers (CYCLOTENE and ORMOCLEAR) is reported. Using a range of electrical, optical and structural characterization techniques, we show that polymers can be superior to more conventional (inorganic) materials as optical substrates for realizing ultra-thin gold films. Using these transparent polymer substrates, smooth, patternable gold films can be fabricated with conventional deposition techniques at room temperature, without adhesion or seeding layers, facilitating new photonic and plasmonic nanostructures, including transparent electrical contacts, thin film waveguides, metamaterials, biosensors and high-contrast superlenses.