Manipulation of Surface Plasmon Resonances for Novel Nanocomposites Matrices

Abstract

Plasmonic structures are the synthetically prepared metamaterials usually made up of nano-sized noble metals. Such plasmonic materials exhibit unique optical properties different from natural bulk materials. These unique optical properties are due to the excitation of surface plasmons. Strong absorption of light wave is the unique characteristic property of such metamaterials. These have great potential for energy harvesting to sensors applications. The optical performance such as bandwidth, intensity, and peak position of the absorption can be adjusted. Experimental results demonstrated that the optical properties can be tuned by varying geometrical structure. It is also found that the dielectric environment has strong influence on the broadening of absorption peak from shorter to longer wavelengths. In this work, experiments are performed to develop nanocomposite (NC) metamaterials based coating for light absorption. Metallic gold nanoparticles are incorporated into dielectric matrix (SiO2 and/or TiO2) to form ultra-thin NC. In-house PVD-Magnetron sputtering methods are used for NC development. Experimental results demonstrated that the optical properties can be tuned by varying geometrical structure. It is also found that the dielectric environment has strong influence on the broadening of absorption peak from shorter to longer wavelengths.