Technology of local electrochemical deposition of island metal films (Au) o
n semiconductor surface (GaAs) is elaborated. As observed in TEM and AFM, g
old islets have the form of a truncated spheres separated by uncovered area
s of GaAs. By comparison results of optical measurements on the samples wit
h islets of essentially various sizes, the attempt of reveal the size effec
t in optical properties of gold clusters is undertaken. (C) 2001 Acta Mater
ialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.