Effect of Gold Nanoparticle Size on the Properties of Etched Silica Pillars

In this paper, we propose a method for the formation of efficient photoconverters which optical band gap decreases due to the introduction of impurities (gold nanoparticles) into the oxide. Gold nanoparticles can act both as noticeable levels in the band gap and as plasmonic particles. The use of 2D geometry in this case allows you to significantly increase the effective transformation surface. Photo-induced current transfer through nanocomposite structures consisting SiO
2
layers activated with gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are under investigation. AuNPs are situated on top of SiO
2
nano-pillars. Nano-pillar array with AuNPs is prepared by previously described two-step technique using plasma etching. Optical and electric characteristics of these structure are investigated.