Ultrathin Wetting Layer-Free Plasmonic Gold Films

Published

October 3, 2019

Author(s)

Robert Lemasters, Cheng Zhang, Manoj Manjare, Wenqi Zhu, Junyeob Song, Sergei Urazhdin, Henri Lezec, Amit Agrawal, Hayk Harutyunyan

Abstract

Ultrathin gold films are attractive for plasmonic and metamaterial devices, thanks to their useful optical and optoelectronic properties. However, deposition of ultrathin continuous Au films of few nanometer thickness is challenging and generally requires wetting layers, resulting in increased optical losses and incompatibility with optoelectronic device requirements. We demonstrate wetting-layer free plasmonic gold films with thicknesses down to 3 nm obtained by deposition on substrates cooled to cryogenic temperatures. We systematically study the effect of substrate temperature on the properties of the deposited Au films, and show that substrate cooling suppresses the Vomer-Webber growth mode of Au, promoting early-stage formation of continuous Au films with improved surface morphology and enhanced optoelectronic properties. Our results pave the way for straightforward implementation of ultrathin Au-based optoelectronic and plasmonic devices, as well as metamaterials and metasurfaces.

Citation

ACS Photonics

Volume

6

Issue

11

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.9b00907

Local Download

Citation

Lemasters, R. , Zhang, C. , Manjare, M. , Zhu, W. , Song, J. , Urazhdin, S. , Lezec, H. , Agrawal, A. and Harutyunyan, H. (2019), Ultrathin Wetting Layer-Free Plasmonic Gold Films, ACS Photonics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.9b00907, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=928329 (Accessed April 25, 2024)