Surface patterning is the general term used to describe any fabrication method for modifying a substrate with extremely fine precision. Producing detailed surface structures with microscale features is now a matter of course for academics and engineers in a wide range of application areas. As with any new manufacturing paradigm, there are various technical routes for creating precision surface patterns. Selecting the best surface patterning method can subsequently be a difficult choice.
One of the main problems in microscopy is the movement of the specimen from beam irradiation during imaging which can lead to low-resolution images which are blurred. Carbon films on metal grids can cause this specimen drift. Using gold thin films instead of carbon can stop the drift as they are chemically inert and biocompatible, less fragile, extremely conductive and non-oxidizing. Gold thin metal films are often seen as the most significant signal amplification components in electrochemical and optical sensor applications. In surface plasmon resonance (SPR) applications, gold thin metal film has electron densities which have the plasmon frequencies in the visible light range.
