Gold Coating is a Thin Film of Gold Deposited Onto a Substrate

A gold coating is a very thin film of gold deposited onto a supporting substrate. This serves as a very useful substrate in the life science academia & industrial markets.

• Typical characteristics of gold surfaces include:
• Good resistance to oxidation
• Inert surface for use with biological experimentation
• Good conductor of electricity
• Ultra smooth surfaces can be prepared
• Easily forms thiol chemistry self-assembled monolayers (SAM)

Glossary of Terms

• Nanometer (nm): 1×10-9 m
• Ångström (Å): 0.1 nm
• E-beam Evaporation: A physical vapor deposition technique used for thin film coatings.
• Adhesion Layer: A thin layer deposited for improving the adhesion of gold on to the substrate (material to be coated).
• Roughness: A measure of surface smoothness.
• Grain Size: The size of gold grains present on the surface. Grain size has an effect on the roughness of the gold surface.
• Self Assembled Monolayers(SAM): Surfaces consisting of a single layer of molecules on a substrate, prepared by adding a solution of the desired molecule onto the substrate surface and washing off the excess.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques are commonly used for depositing metal thin films onto a surface.