Direct Laser Writing of Gold Nanostructures: Application to Data Storage and Color Nanoprinting

We have demonstrated a simple way to fabricate gold islands by using the laser direct writing method. The gold nano-islands were formed by the optically induced local thermal effect, resulting from the excitation of a continuous-wave laser beam on gold layer. By moving the laser focusing spot, it was possible to write desired plasmonic texts and images on demand at a nanoscale. By changing the exposure dose, the size of gold nano-islands was controlled, resulted in different colors. This demonstration paves the way for many interesting applications, such as plasmonic data storage and nano-scaled color printing.