Study of vibrational modes of gold nanostructures by picosecond ultrasonics

Abstract

We have used picosecond ultrasonics techniques to study the vibrations of several nanostructures composed of laterally patterned gold films on fused quartz substrates. The structures include arrays of stripes and dots with lateral repeat distance as small as 2000 Å. The frequencies and attenuation rates of the low-lying normal modes of these structures are measured. We compare these results with those obtained theoretically from a finite element analysis of the dynamics of the structures, and discuss the physical nature of the principal vibrational modes.