The development of plasmonic metasurface-based optical structures requires alternative, high-performance plasmonic materials, in replacement of commonly used noble metals. Ideally, plasmonic materials should have the properties of low-cost, low-loss, high chemical, mechanical, and thermal stabilities, biocompatibility, spectral tunability, as well as integrability with existing semiconductor technologies. Recently, we have developed epitaxial growth techniques for forming smooth, single-crystalline aluminum and titanium nitride films on transparent sapphire substrates using nitrogen-plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. In comparison to silver and gold, aluminum- and titanium-nitride-based plasmonics have better stabilities and spectral responses in the ultraviolet and visible spectral regions, making them particular suitable for ultraviolet surface-enhanced surface Raman spectroscopy (UV-SERS), optical energy harvesting, and metamaterial-based linear and nonlinear optics. In this talk, I will present our recent experimental results in these areas. References: (1) C.-Y. Wang, H.-Y. Chen, L. Sun, W.-L. Chen, Y.-M. Chang, H. Ahn, X. Li, S. Gwo, Nat. Commun. 2015, 6, 7734. (2) S. Gwo, H.-Y. Chen, M.-H. Lin, L. Sun, X. Li, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2016, 45, 5672–5716. (3) F. Cheng, P.-H. Su, J. Choi, S. Gwo, X. Li, C.-K. Shih, ACS Nano 2016, 10, 9852–9860. (4) C.-W. Cheng, Y.-J. Liao, C.-Y. Liu, B.-H. Wu, S. S. Raja, C.-Y. Wang, X. Li, C.-K. Shih, L.-J. Chen, S. Gwo, ACS Photonics, 2018, 5, 2624–2630. (5) W.-P. Guo, R. Mishra, C.-W. Cheng, B.-H. Wu, L.-J. Chen, M.-T. Lin, S. Gwo, 2019, manuscript in preparation.

Date Published: 9 September 2019
PDF
Proc. SPIE 11082, Plasmonics: Design, Materials, Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications XVII, 110820Z (9 September 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2529672

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11082:
Plasmonics: Design, Materials, Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications XVII
Din Ping Tsai; Takuo Tanaka, Editor(s)