Controlling the Plasmonic Properties of Ultrathin TiN Films at the Atomic Level

Shah, Deesha; Catellani, Alessandra; Reddy, Harsha; Kinsey, Nathaniel; Shalaev, Vladimir M.; Boltasseva, Alexandra; Calzolari, Arrigo

doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.7b01553

Cited by 88 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The greater share of the interest has been devoted to Ti x N, which was recognized as being capable of sustaining SPPs since at least 1994, although interest in its ability to sustain LSPRs seems to have only started in earnest in 2010 . There has been significant subsequent work since then . One important difference between these nitrides and actual metallic systems, however, is that the nitrides generally have a very variable stoichiometry, carrier concentration and defect structure, which in turn controls their dielectric function, and hence the degree to which they are “metallic.” In the case of Ti x N, properties ranging from highly metallic to almost an insulating dielectric can be obtained by varying the deposition parameters—typically nitrogen flow rate or substrate temperature .…”

Section: Compounds Between Metals and Nonmetalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quest for Zero Loss: Unconventional Materials for Plasmonics

2019

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There has been an ongoing quest to optimize the materials used to build plasmonic devices: first the elements were investigated, then alloys and intermetallic compounds, later semiconductors were considered, and, most recently, there has been interest in using more exotic materials such as topological insulators and conducting oxides. The quality of the plasmon resonances in these materials is closely correlated with their structure and properties. In general gold and silver are the most commonly specified materials for these applications but they do have weaknesses. Here, it is shown how, in specific circumstances, the selection of certain other materials might be more useful. Candidate alternatives include TixN, VO2, Al, Cu, Al‐doped ZnO, and Cu–Al alloys. The relative merits of these choices and the many pitfalls and subtle problems that arise are discussed, and a frank perspective on the field is provided.

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Section: Compounds Between Metals and Nonmetalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quest for Zero Loss: Unconventional Materials for Plasmonics

2019

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“…The current research has been largely focusing on either purely 2D structures including metal-dielectric interfaces and novel 2D materials [7,8], or on conventional bulk materials, being guided by the traditional view that only the dimensionality and chemical composition are important to control the optoelectronic properties of materials. The transitional, transdimensional regime laying in between 3D and 2D, has been largely out of the major research focus so far.Ultrathin films made of metals, doped semiconductors, or polar materials with a thickness of only a few atomic layers, can support plasmon-, exciton-, and phonon-polariton eigenmodes [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Such TD materials are therefore expected to show the high tailorability of their electronic and optical properties by varying their thickness (number of monolayers), chemical, atomic and electronic composition (stoichiometry, doping) as opposed to conventional thin films usually described by the bulk material properties with boundary conditions imposed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Transdimensional epsilon-near-zero modes in planar plasmonic nanostructures

Bondarev

Mousavi

Shalaev

2020

Phys. Rev. Research

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We use quantum electrodynamics and the confinement-induced nonlocal dielectric response model based on the Keldysh-Rytova electron interaction potential to study the epsilon-near-zero modes of metallic films in the transdimensional regime. New peculiar effects are revealed such as the plasmon mode degeneracy lifting and the dipole emitter coupling to the split epsilon-near-zero modes, leading to biexponential spontaneous decay with up to three-orders-of-magnitude increased rates.Transdimensional (TD) materials are ultrathin planar nanostructures composed of a precisely controlled finite number of monolayers [1]. Modern material fabrication techniques allow one to produce stoichiometrically perfect films of metals and semiconductors down to a few, or even a single monolayer in thickness [2][3][4][5][6]. TD materials make it possible to probe fundamental properties of light-matter interactions as they evolve from a single atomic layer to a larger number of layers approaching the bulk material properties. The current research has been largely focusing on either purely 2D structures including metal-dielectric interfaces and novel 2D materials [7,8], or on conventional bulk materials, being guided by the traditional view that only the dimensionality and chemical composition are important to control the optoelectronic properties of materials. The transitional, transdimensional regime laying in between 3D and 2D, has been largely out of the major research focus so far.Ultrathin films made of metals, doped semiconductors, or polar materials with a thickness of only a few atomic layers, can support plasmon-, exciton-, and phonon-polariton eigenmodes [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Such TD materials are therefore expected to show the high tailorability of their electronic and optical properties by varying their thickness (number of monolayers), chemical, atomic and electronic composition (stoichiometry, doping) as opposed to conventional thin films usually described by the bulk material properties with boundary conditions imposed. Plasmonic TD materials (ultrathin finite-thickness metallic films), in particular, can provide controlled light confinement due to their thicknessdependent localized surface plasmon (SP) modes [12,13], thereby offering tunable light-matter coupling, higher adjustable transparency and new quantum phenomena such as enabling atomic transitions that are normally forbidden [14]. Similar to truly 2D and quasi-2D materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers [8,15], plasmonic TD materials are also expected to show the extreme sensitivity to external fields, making possible advances such as novel parity-time symmetry * Corresponding author email: ibondarev@nccu.edu breaking photonic designs [16] that can further develop the fields of plasmonics and optical metasurfaces [17,18]. However, while some predictions on tunability, anomalous dispersion, and strong light confinement in ultrathin plasmonic films have been made [19][20][21][22][23] much remains unclear about their nonlinea...

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“…To ensure a good metallic and continuous TiN film deposited on an amorphous Si layer by sputtering, thickness = 10 nm was chosen for the TiN MIM structure. Note that a good metallic and continuous TiN film below 10 nm can be fabricated by sputtering either using a lattice‐matched substrate42,43 or depositing with high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technique44,45 at high process temperatures. The resonance of the MIM structure stems from the interference where the resonance wavelength can be adjusted by changing the cavity length 46,47.…”

Section: Planar Multilayer Structures; Tin Mim and Tin Tppmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrow‐Band Thermal Emitter with Titanium Nitride Thin Film Demonstrating High Temperature Stability

Yang

Ishii

Doan

et al. 2020

Advanced Optical Materials

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generation, [4][5][6] radiative cooling, [7] and thermophotovoltaics (TPVs). [8] When selective thermal emitters are intended to emit in shorter mid IR range (e.g., an emitter for TPV system), the emitter has to be heated above one thousand kelvin. [9] Refractory metals such as molybdenum (Mo) [10] and tungsten (W) [11] are required in such cases. However, searching for alternative plasmonic materials is essential for reducing the material cost as well as for material research interest.Transition metal nitrides such as titanium nitride (TiN) and zirconium nitride (ZrN) also possess melting point as high as ≈3000 °C, [12][13][14] hence regarded as good candidate materials for thermal emitters. In addition, transition metal nitrides are regarded as alternative plasmonic materials in the visible to infrared region due to their high carrier concentrations up to 10 21 -10 22 cm −3 . [15] Among transition metal nitrides, TiN receives many attentions as an alternative plasmonic material in the past decades. [16][17][18] One of the advantages of using TiN is that it can be used in much higher temperature than other plasmonic materials. [19][20][21] However, there are only limited studies on thermal emitters using TiN so far.To demonstrate wavelength selective thermal emission, nanostructures have been investigated intensively [22,23] rather than microcavity structures which have been studied in 1990's and early 2000's. [24][25][26] Variety of nanostructures have been proposed, such as 1D grating, [27,28] 2D or 3D metallic photonic crystals, [2,29,30] and metal-insulator-metal (MIM) metamaterial structures. [31] Among those nanostructures, MIM metamaterial structures are easy to achieve wavelength selective emissions with single or multibands whose bandwidths and emission wavelengths are adjustable. [32] However, the requirement of nanofabrication, such as e-beam lithography, leads to limitations in large area fabrications.In contrast, thin-film based devices are the candidates for large area samples which do not require nanopatterning. [33,34] One way to optimize 1D thin film structures is via manipulating the phase-shifting layers in Gires-Tournois resonator. [35] Several different multilayer thin-film designs have been explored, which include Fabry-Perot cavity with either distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) and/or metallic mirror(s) and Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPPs) structures. For MIM structures (i.e., Fabry-Perot cavity), standing waves exist within the dielectric layer to form a cavity resonator. [36][37][38] In contrast, 1D TPP structure can excite TPP resonance at the interface of a A refractory wavelength selective thermal emitter is experimentally realized by the excitation of Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPPs) between a titanium nitride (TiN) thin film and a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). The absorptance reaches nearly unity at ≈3.73 μm with the bandwidth of 0.36 μm in the experiment. High temperature stabilities are confirmed up to 500 and 1000 °C in ambient and in vacuum, respectively. When the TiN TPP stru...

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Controlling the Plasmonic Properties of Ultrathin TiN Films at the Atomic Level

Cited by 88 publications

References 62 publications

The Quest for Zero Loss: Unconventional Materials for Plasmonics

The Quest for Zero Loss: Unconventional Materials for Plasmonics

Transdimensional epsilon-near-zero modes in planar plasmonic nanostructures

Narrow‐Band Thermal Emitter with Titanium Nitride Thin Film Demonstrating High Temperature Stability

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