Preparation of ordered thin gold films

Nanotechnological research or processing often requires substrates with an atomically flat gold surface for the growth of ordered organic thin films. A phenomenological study was carried out to find a reliable way for the gol d thin film preparation. A moderate amount of preparation efforts and low c osts were mainly considered. The investigation leads to two procedures. A t wo step process if the attention is focused on the lateral crystallite's di mension and a single step process if more emphasis has to be put on average flatness of the film. Both processes allow to grow gold films with single crystalline areas larger than 1 pm in diameter which is sufficient as subst rates for self assembling or organic film growth. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.