Optical characterisation of nanoscale particle and hole-arrays formed by nanosphere lithography

We present an experimental investigation into the optical properties of nanoparticle and nano-hole-arrays fabricated by the process of nanosphere lithography, an inexpensive and parallel technique that we have used to good effect to explore the transition from nanoparticle to nano-hole-array. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of a nanoparticle array formed without etching the nanospheres and modal dispersion plots for the two structures are presented.