In this work, titanium nitride (TiN) nanorod arrays were prepared as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates using glancing angle deposition (GLAD) in a magnetron sputtering system. The nitrogen flow rate was varied from RN2 = 1 to 3 sccm, yielding five TiN uniform thin films and five TiN nanorod arrays. The figure of merit (FOM) of each TiN uniform film was measured and compared with the SERS signal of each TiN nanorod array. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was used as the analyte in SERS measurement. For an R6G concentration of 10−6 M, the analytical enhancement factor (AEF) of the TiN nanorod array that was prepared at RN2 = 1.5 sccm was 104. The time-durable SERS performance of TiN nanorod arrays was also investigated.

In this work, titanium nitride (TiN) nanorod arrays were fabricated using glancing angle deposition in a magnetron sputtering system. The deposition parameters, including the bias on the substrate and the flow rate of nitrogen, were varied to deposit various TiN nanorod arrays. Before glancing angle deposition was conducted, uniform TiN films were deposited and their permittivity spectra, for various deposition parameters, were obtained. The effect of the deposition parameters on the morphology of the nanorods is analyzed here. The polarization-dependent extinctance spectra of TiN nanorod arrays were measured and compared. Extinction, which corresponds to the longitudinal mode of localized surface plasmon resonance, can be significantly changed by tuning the N2 flow rate and substrate bias voltage during deposition.

Silver nano-rod, nano-zigzag, nano-saw, and nano-particle arrays are fabricated with glancing angle bideposition. The structure-dependent anisotropic optical properties of those bideposited nanostructured arrays are measured and investigated. The equivalent birefringence values of nano-rod and nano-zigzag arrays are much larger than crystals found in nature and liquid crystal used in display products. The fact that induced localized plasmon-magnetic field between nanorods dominates the strong phase retardation between p-polarized and s-polarized transmitted wave. For the nano-saw, the strong localized electric field induced between the saw teeth leads to strong SERS signals. Although the bideposited nanoparticles own weak morphological anisotropy, strong optical phase retardation is still detected at wavelengths near 400 nm.

Silver nanohelices were grown on smooth substrates using glancing angle deposition and substrate cooling. Various nanohelix arrays were deposited under different deposition conditions-different deposition rates, substrate spin rates, deposition angles, and substrate temperatures. The effect of deposition conditions on the morphology of each nanohelix array in terms of pitch angle, pitch length, wire diameter, and radius of curvature was investigated. The dependence of circular dichroism on the size of the nanohelix arrays was also measured and demonstrated.

A substrate surface on which gold particles are distributed is prepared by annealing an ultra-thin gold film to enable glancing angle deposition. By cooling the substrate and controlling its spin rate, two spiral-like and one screw-like gold nanohelix arrays are grown upon the seeded surfaces. The mean helix radius and pitch length are reduced to 17 and 55 nm, respectively. The g-factor of the three nanohelix arrays is measured here and associated circular dichroism peak blue shifts occur as the gold helices shrink.