A TiN@Au-NR Plasmonic Structure with Tunable Surface Plasmon Resonance Depending on TiN to Au Thickness Ratio

Abstract

TiN nanostructures have been shown to exhibit promising plasmonic properties and are potential candidates for various applications, including energy harvesting. However, these properties also show a strong dependence on the processing conditions which have been reported to affect metallicity of TiN. Herein, we report on layered TiN@Au-nanorods (NRs) nanostructures consisting of 20 nm TiN thin layer that is magnetron sputtered on Au-NRs of variable length, yielding different TiN/Au thickness ratios (R). While a 20 nm TiN layer sputtered on the same substrate on which the Au-NRs are grown shows a weak absorption peak in the near IR region, an intense and broad plasmonic peak that lies red from the transverse plasmonic peak of monolithic Au-NRs layer is observed for TiN@Au-NRs. The red-shift is shown to increase with increasing R, attaining 100 nm for R = 1, together with an intense tail in the IR region. These results are interpreted in terms of a strong coupling between TiN and Au that drastically affects the plasmonic behavior of the structure. The results are contrasted with those on Pd@Au-NRs where only a slight blue-shift of few nanometers from the Au peak is observed. Potential applications of the TiN@Au-NRs are mainly in energy harvesting such as water splitting and photocatalysis using electromagnetic radiation in a broad wavelength range, as well as medical applications. Pd@Au-NRs may be used as electrocatalysts with plasmonic enhancement, e.g., for the hydrogen evolution reaction.

Oxygen Defects Containing TiN Films for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: A Robust Thin Film Electrocatalyst With Outstanding Performance

“…In the present work, the potential application of TiN as HER catalyst is considered. TiN is a wellestablished multifunctional material with applications spanning hard-coating for steel tools to plasmonics [19][20][21]; it is usually processed in industrial scale as thin film of various thickness using physical (PVD) or chemical (CVD) vapor deposition (e.g., review articles [22,23]). Further, it has been shown using density functional theory that hydrogen adsorbs on TiN with the adsorption energy being dependent on termination (N or Ti) and adsorption sites.…”

Oxygen Defects Containing TiN Films for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: A Robust Thin-Film Electrocatalyst with Outstanding Performance

“…In the present study, the potential application of TiN as an HER catalyst is considered. TiN is a well-established multifunctional material with applications spanning hard-coating for steel tools to plasmonics [21][22][23]; it is usually processed on an industrial scale as a thin film of various thicknesses using physical (PVD) or chemical (CVD) vapor deposition (e.g., review articles [24,25]). Further, it has been shown using density functional theory that hydrogen adsorbs on TiN, with the adsorption energy being dependent on termination (N or Ti) and adsorption sites [26,27].…”

Revealing CdSe Quantum Dots Plasmonics Confined in Au Nanotrenches by Thermoacoustic Spectroscopy

“…If plasmons on neighboring parts of the nanostructures joined by surfaces and interfaces interact, they can hybridize just like the electron wave functions of molecular orbitals. Such plasmon hybridization represents a powerful paradigm for designing metallic resonant nanostructures. , The resulting optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures are in many ways complementary to those of semiconductor quantum dot nanostructures. − …”

“…Such plasmon hybridization represents a powerful paradigm for designing metallic resonant nanostructures. 9,10 The resulting optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures are in many ways complementary to those of semiconductor quantum dot nanostructures. 11−14 Metallic nanogaps have sparked interest across a wide range of quantum plasmonic areas.…”