Ion Implantation for the Fabrication of Plasmonic Nanocomposites: A Brief Review

Abstract

Ion Implantation for the Fabrication of Plasmonic Nanocomposites: A Brief Review 329 depth distribution located some micrometers underneath the surface and wide enough to be convenient for the production of optical waveguides. Ion implantation has been also successfully used to create more complex structures such as alloys (Mattei, 2002), sophisticated aggregates (Mattei et al., 2003b; Pellegrini et al., 2007a, 2007b), core-shell structures (Peña et al., 2009) and nanorods (which are aligned, unlike those produced by other methods) (Rodríguez-Iglesias et al., 2010a; b). In this chapter, we intend to review the current status of the synthesis of plasmonic nanocomposites by means of ion-implantation. In the year 1984, Picraux (Picraux, 1984) has published a useful review on the status of ion-implantation in metals, improving the understanding on the kinetics and equilibria in metal alloy reactions, surface modification, and defect structures. Similarly, Buchal et al. (Buchal et al., 1994) have reviewed the status of ion-implantation in optical materials in 1994, focusing mainly on the usefulness of the technique for producing linear and non-linear optical devices. However, apart from a good review on Cu implanted alumina by Stepanov and Khaibullin (Stepanov & Khaibullin, 2005) there exists no recent review summarizing the current advances made on the utilization of this technique for the fabrication and processing of plasmonic nanocomposites which have emerging applications in diverse fields. Incorporated species Matrix material (refractive index) Predicted (eV) Measured (eV) References Au SiO 2 (1.48) 2.35 2.48-2.21 (Barreca et al., 2004; Kim et al., 2008) Ag SiO 2 (1.48) 3.12 3.92-3.02