  High-quality materials are critical for advances in plasmonics, especially as
researchers now investigate quantum effects at the limit of single surface
plasmons or exploit ultraviolet- or CMOS-compatible metals such as aluminum or
copper. Unfortunately, due to inexperience with deposition methods, many
plasmonics researchers deposit metals under the wrong conditions, severely
limiting performance unnecessarily. This is then compounded as others follow
their published procedures. In this perspective, we describe simple rules
collected from the surface-science literature that allow high-quality plasmonic
films of aluminum, copper, gold, and silver to be easily deposited with
commonly available equipment (a thermal evaporator). Recipes are also provided
so that films with optimal optical properties can be routinely obtained.
