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Special Issue "Plasmonic Materials"

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2015) | Viewed by 134177

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gururaj V. Naik
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Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, 496 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last five years, materials research has made a significant impact on the fields of plasmonics and metamaterials. Plasmonics and metamaterials require materials that have good optical properties, which are easy to pattern into nanostructures and easy to integrate together. Many classes of materials that can substitute noble metals in applications spanning across wide spectral ranges have been previously demonstrated; semiconductors, oxides, perovskite oxides, metal nitrides, silicides and germanides are a few to mention. This rapidly growing field is the focus of the forthcoming issue, ‘Plasmonic Materials’. The issue covers a broad range of topics related to plasmonic materials, but not limited to the growth and characterization of novel plasmonic materials, optical losses, tunability, chemical stability, CMOS compatibility, refractory materials and 2D materials.

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Gururaj V. Naik
Guest Editor

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Keywords

plasmonics
plasmonic materials
refractory materials
optical properties
metamaterials

Published Papers (14 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

Metal Nanoparticle-Decorated Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Sulfide for Plasmonic-Enhanced Polymer Photovoltaic Devices

Ming-Kai Chuang

Shun-Shing Yang

and

Fang-Chung Chen

Materials 2015, 8(8), 5414-5425; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8085252 - 21 Aug 2015

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6985

Abstract

Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides have also attracted immense interest because they exhibit appealing electronic, optical and mechanical properties. In this work, we prepared gold nanoparticle-decorated molybdenum sulfide (AuNP@MoS2) through a simple spontaneous redox reaction. Transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the properties of the AuNP@MoS2 nanomaterials. Then we employed such nanocomposites as the cathode buffer layers of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) to trigger surface plasmonic resonance, leading to noticeable enhancements in overall device efficiencies. We attribute the primary origin of the improvement in device performance to local field enhancement induced by the effects of localized surface plasmonic resonance. Our results suggest that the metal nanoparticle-decorated two-dimensional materials appear to have great potential for use in high-performance OPVs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Beam Propagation Method Calculating Attenuated Total Reflection Spectra to Excite Hybridized Surface Plasmon Polaritons

and

Materials 2015, 8(8), 5048-5059; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8085048 - 07 Aug 2015

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4914

Abstract

Using the beam propagation method, an analytical expression of the reflection spectra of a Kretschmann configuration is derived in order to excite hybridized surface plasmonic polaritons (HSPPs). In this configuration, the cladding is a uniaxial dielectric with the optical axis parallel to the interface. The validity of the analytical expression is confirmed by a finite-difference time-domain algorithm and a reported experimental result, respectively. Based on this expression, the properties and the conditions for excitation of the HSPPs are discussed in detail, with regard to the strongly anisotropic cladding and the weakly anisotropic cladding. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Nanoimprinted Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Plasmonic Multilayers with Controlled Surface Nano Architecture for Applications in NIR Detectors

and

Materials 2015, 8(8), 5028-5047; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8085028 - 07 Aug 2015

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6577

Abstract

We present a proof of concept for tunable plasmon resonance frequencies in a core shell nano-architectured hybrid metal-semiconductor multilayer structure, with Ag as the active shell and ITO as the dielectric modulation media. Our method relies on the collective change in the dielectric function within the metal semiconductor interface to control the surface. Here we report fabrication and optical spectroscopy studies of large-area, nanostructured, hybrid silver and indium tin oxide (ITO) structures, with feature sizes below 100 nm and a controlled surface architecture. The optical and electrical properties of these core shell electrodes, including the surface plasmon frequency, can be tuned by suitably changing the order and thickness of the dielectric layers. By varying the dimensions of the nanopillars, the surface plasmon wavelength of the nanopillar Ag can be tuned from 650 to 690 nm. Adding layers of ITO to the structure further shifts the resonance wavelength toward the IR region and, depending on the sequence and thickness of the layers within the structure, we show that such structures can be applied in sensing devices including enhancing silicon as a photodetection material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Transient Photocurrent Response of Plasmon-Enhanced Polymer Solar Cells with Gold Nanoparticles

and

Materials 2015, 8(7), 4050-4060; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8074050 - 06 Jul 2015

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5898

Abstract

In this work, the transient photocurrent of the plasmon-enhanced polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-Phenyl C₆₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is investigated. Two kinds of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) enhanced devices were fabricated by doping the gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) into the anode buffer layer and inserting Au NPs between the anode buffer layer and the active layer. We probed the dynamics of the turn-on and turn-off responses to 400 μs square-pulse optical excitation from the 380 nm and 520 nm light-emitting diodes (LED) driven by an electric pulse generator. The transient photocurrent curves of devices with Au NPs at different positions and under different excitation wavelength are compared and analyzed. The charge trapping/detrapping processes that occurred at the interface of Au NPs and the active layer were observed; these exhibit an overshoot in the initial fast rise of photocurrent response. Our results show that the incorporating position of Au NPs is an important key factor to influence the transient photocurrent behaviors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Plasmon-Polariton Properties in Metallic Nanosphere Chains

Witold Aleksander Jacak

Jurij Krasnyj

and

Andrej Chepok

Materials 2015, 8(7), 3910-3937; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8073910 - 29 Jun 2015

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3929

Abstract

The propagation of collective wave type plasmonic excitations along infinite chains of metallic nanospheres has been analyzed, including near-, medium- and far-field contributions to the plasmon dipole interaction with all retardation effects taken into account. It is proven that there exist weakly-damped self-modes of plasmon-polaritons in the chain for which the propagation range is limited by relatively small Ohmic losses only. In this regime, the Lorentz friction irradiation losses on each nanosphere in the chain are ideally compensated by the energy income from the rest of the chain. The completely undamped collective waves were identified in the case of the presence of persistent external excitation of some fragment of the chain. The obtained characteristics of these excitations fit the experimental observations well. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Plasmonic Light Trapping in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Impact of Modeling on Performance Prediction

and

Materials 2015, 8(6), 3648-3670; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8063648 - 18 Jun 2015

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5321

Abstract

We present a comparative study on numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells due to the presence of structured back-reflectors exciting, at specific wavelengths, hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonances. To evaluate the effectiveness of the analyzed models, they have been applied in a case study: starting from a U-shaped textured glass thin-film, µc-Si:H solar cells have been successfully fabricated. The fabricated cells, with different intrinsic layer thicknesses, have been morphologically, optically and electrically characterized. The experimental results have been successively compared with the numerical predictions. We have found that, in contrast to basic models based on the underlying schematics of the cell, numerical models taking into account the real morphology of the fabricated device, are able to effectively predict the cells performances in terms of both optical absorption and short-circuit current values. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Tunable Optical Nanocavity of Iron-garnet with a Buried Metal Layer

and

Vladimir I. Belotelov

Materials 2015, 8(6), 3012-3023; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8063012 - 28 May 2015

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4671

Abstract

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a novel magnetophotonic structure designed as iron garnet based magneto-optical nanoresonator cavity constrained by two noble metal mirrors. Since the iron garnet layer requires annealing at high temperatures, the fabrication process can be rather challenging. Special approaches for the protection of metal layers against oxidation and morphological changes along with a special plasma-assisted polishing of the iron garnet layer surface were used to achieve a 10-fold enhancement of the Faraday rotation angle (up to 10.8\(^{\circ}/\mu\)m) within a special resonance peak of 12 nm (FWHM) linewidth at a wavelength of 772 nm, in the case of a resonator with two silver mirrors. These structures are promising for tunable nanophotonics applications, in particular, they can be used as magneto-optical (MO) metal-insulator-metal waveguides and modulators. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Application of Turkevich Method for Gold Nanoparticles Synthesis to Fabrication of SiO₂@Au and TiO₂@Au Core-Shell Nanostructures

Paulina Dobrowolska

Aleksandra Krajewska

Magdalena Gajda-Rączka

Bartosz Bartosewicz

Piotr Nyga

and

Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Materials 2015, 8(6), 2849-2862; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8062849 - 26 May 2015

Cited by 52 | Viewed by 16432

Abstract

The Turkevich synthesis method of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) was adopted for direct fabrication of SiO₂@Au and TiO₂@Au core-shell nanostructures. In this method, chloroauric acid was reduced with trisodium citrate in the presence of amine-functionalized silica or titania submicroparticles. Core-shells obtained in this way were compared to structures fabricated by mixing of Turkevich AuNPs with amine-functionalized silica or titania submicroparticles. It was found that by modification of reaction conditions of the first method, such as temperature and concentration of reagents, control over gold coverage on silicon dioxide particles has been achieved. Described method under certain conditions allows fabrication of semicontinuous gold films on the surface of silicon dioxide particles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing use of Turkevich method to direct fabrication of TiO₂@Au core-shell nanostructures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessArticle

Fabrication and Characterization of a SPR Based Fiber Optic Sensor for the Detection of Chlorine Gas Using Silver and Zinc Oxide

Sruthi P. Usha

Satyendra K. Mishra

and

Banshi D. Gupta

Materials 2015, 8(5), 2204-2216; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8052204 - 28 Apr 2015

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 7072

Abstract

A fiber optic chlorine gas sensor working on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique fabricated using coatings of silver and zinc oxide films over unclad core of the optical fiber is reported. The sensor probe is characterized using wavelength interrogation and recording SPR spectra for different concentrations of chlorine gas around the probe. A red shift is observed in the resonance wavelength on increasing the concentration of the chlorine gas. The thickness of the zinc oxide film is optimized to achieve the maximum sensitivity of the sensor. In addition to wavelength interrogation, the sensor can also work on intensity modulation. The selectivity of the sensor towards chlorine gas is verified by carrying out measurements for different gases. The sensor has various advantages such as better sensitivity, good selectivity, reusability, fast response, low cost, capability of online monitoring and remote sensing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

Utilization of Field Enhancement in Plasmonic Waveguides for Subwavelength Light-Guiding, Polarization Handling, Heating, and Optical Sensing

Daoxin Dai

Hao Wu

and

Wei Zhang

Materials 2015, 8(10), 6772-6791; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8105341 - 09 Oct 2015

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 7993

Abstract

Plasmonic nanostructures have attracted intensive attention for many applications in recent years because of the field enhancement at the metal/dielectric interface. First, this strong field enhancement makes it possible to break the diffraction limit and enable subwavelength optical waveguiding, which is desired for nanophotonic integrated circuits with ultra-high integration density. Second, the field enhancement in plasmonic nanostructures occurs only for the polarization mode whose electric field is perpendicular to the metal/dielectric interface, and thus the strong birefringence is beneficial for realizing ultra-small polarization-sensitive/selective devices, including polarization beam splitters, and polarizers. Third, plasmonic nanostructures provide an excellent platform of merging electronics and photonics for some applications, e.g., thermal tuning, photo-thermal detection, etc. Finally, the field enhancement at the metal/dielectric interface helps a lot to realize optical sensors with high sensitivity when introducing plasmonic nanostrutures. In this paper, we give a review for recent progresses on the utilization of field enhancement in plasmonic nanostructures for these applications, e.g., waveguiding, polarization handling, heating, as well as optical sensing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessReview

Current Approach in Surface Plasmons for Thin Film and Wire Array Solar Cell Applications

and

Materials 2015, 8(7), 4565-4581; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8074565 - 22 Jul 2015

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6500

Abstract

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tailored to a certain geometric design to enhance solar cell conversion efficiency and to reduce the material costs. In this article, we review current approaches on different kinds of solar cells, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells, organic solar cells, nanowire array solar cells, and single nanowire solar cells. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessReview

Nano Sensing and Energy Conversion Using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)

Iltai (Isaac) Kim

and

Kenneth David Kihm

Materials 2015, 8(7), 4332-4343; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8074332 - 16 Jul 2015

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6607

Abstract

Nanophotonic technique has been attracting much attention in applications of nano-bio-chemical sensing and energy conversion of solar energy harvesting and enhanced energy transfer. One approach for nano-bio-chemical sensing is surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging, which can detect the material properties, such as density, ion concentration, temperature, and effective refractive index in high sensitivity, label-free, and real-time under ambient conditions. Recent study shows that SPR can successfully detect the concentration variation of nanofluids during evaporation-induced self-assembly process. Spoof surface plasmon resonance based on multilayer metallo-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterials demonstrate SPR dispersion control, which can be combined with SPR imaging, to characterize high refractive index materials because of its exotic optical properties. Furthermore, nano-biophotonics could enable innovative energy conversion such as the increase of absorption and emission efficiency and the perfect absorption. Localized SPR using metal nanoparticles show highly enhanced absorption in solar energy harvesting. Three-dimensional hyperbolic metamaterial cavity nanostructure shows enhanced spontaneous emission. Recently ultrathin film perfect absorber is demonstrated with the film thickness is as low as ~1/50th of the operating wavelength using epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) phenomena at the wavelength close to SPR. It is expected to provide a breakthrough in sensing and energy conversion applications using the exotic optical properties based on the nanophotonic technique. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessReview

Optical Properties and Plasmonic Performance of Titanium Nitride

Panos Patsalas

Nikolaos Kalfagiannis

and

Spyros Kassavetis

Materials 2015, 8(6), 3128-3154; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8063128 - 29 May 2015

Cited by 251 | Viewed by 36970

Abstract

Titanium nitride (TiN) is one of the most well-established engineering materials nowadays. TiN can overcome most of the drawbacks of palsmonic metals due to its high electron conductivity and mobility, high melting point and due to the compatibility of its growth with Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In this work, we review the dielectric function spectra of TiN and we evaluate the plasmonic performance of TiN by calculating (i) the Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) dispersion relations and (ii) the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) band of TiN nanoparticles, and we demonstrate a significant plasmonic performance of TiN. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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Open AccessReview

Review of Recent Progress of Plasmonic Materials and Nano-Structures for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Alan X. Wang

and

Xianming Kong

Materials 2015, 8(6), 3024-3052; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8063024 - 28 May 2015

Cited by 185 | Viewed by 13291

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has demonstrated single-molecule sensitivity and is becoming intensively investigated due to its significant potential in chemical and biomedical applications. SERS sensing is highly dependent on the substrate, where excitation of the localized surface plasmons (LSPs) enhances the Raman scattering signals of proximate analyte molecules. This paper reviews research progress of SERS substrates based on both plasmonic materials and nano-photonic structures. We first discuss basic plasmonic materials, such as metallic nanoparticles and nano-rods prepared by conventional bottom-up chemical synthesis processes. Then, we review rationally-designed plasmonic nano-structures created by top-down approaches or fine-controlled synthesis with high-density hot-spots to provide large SERS enhancement factors (EFs). Finally, we discuss the research progress of hybrid SERS substrates through the integration of plasmonic nano-structures with other nano-photonic devices, such as photonic crystals, bio-enabled nanomaterials, guided-wave systems, micro-fluidics and graphene. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasmonic Materials)

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