Thermal Tuning of Surface Plasmon Polaritons Using Liquid Crystals

Çetin, Arif E.; Mërtiri, Alket; Huang, Min; Erramilli, Shyamsunder; Altug, Hatice

doi:10.1002/adom.201300303

Cited by 60 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…[1][2][3] However, it remains a grand challenge to realize dynamic and reversible tuning of plasmons with large spectral shifts, which can be applied in large-area wallpapers and video walls, as well as sensors. Previous attempts to realize such a dynamic and reversible tuning used liquid crystals, [ 4,5 ] phase-change materials, DNA origami, [6][7][8] mechanical stretching, [ 9,10 ] stimuli-responsive polymers, [11][12][13][14] and electric fi elds. [ 15,16 ] However, either the tuning range was very small (<50 nm) or the plasmonic nanostructures were poorly defi ned (random aggregates), which hinders in-depth understanding and practical applications.…”

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confidence: 99%

Fast Dynamic Color Switching in Temperature‐Responsive Plasmonic Films

Ding

Rüttiger

Zheng

et al. 2016

Advanced Optical Materials

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COMMUNICATIONmembranes, biosensing, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. [ 19,20 ] Due to its strong volume shrinkage (up to 90%) when the temperature rises above a critical hydration temperature ( T c ) and its full reversibility across this phase transition, pNIPAM has been utilized to tune plasmons in Au/Ag nanoparticles (NPs) and nanorods. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] However, because these plasmonic assemblies are either randomly decorated around the surface of pNIPAM microgels or aggregates with undefi ned number of particles and confi gurations, it is hard to understand the physics of the mixture of different plasmonic constructs properly. Moreover, it takes time for water to diffuse inside the microgels to fully swell them, thus the speed of volume changes has been relatively slow (typically a few seconds).Here, we graft pNIPAM layers ( d = 70 nm thick) onto Au mirror by applying surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) protocols, and place scattering Au NPs on top. By utilizing the phase transition of the pNIPAM, the separation between Au NP and Au fi lm is widely tunable, thereby leading to a dynamic and reversible plasmon tuning system based on modulating the resonant modes. The resulting fi lms exhibit strong color changes, are simple to fabricate, can be fl exible, are low cost, can easily scale to large areas, and respond faster than video rates. In addition, the plasmonic nanoparticles can also be optically irradiated to locally switch the surrounding pNIPAM layers, creating video-rate all-optical switching over large areas.The Au mirrors are deposited via electron beam evaporation with roughness controlled below 1.5 ± 0.5 nm. [ 28 ] The pNIPAM fi lms are then prepared on these Au fi lms by SI-ATRP ( Figure 1 , Experimental Section). [ 29 ] The thickness of the as-grown dry pNIPAM fi lms is determined to be 67 ± 1 nm via ellipsometry ( Figure S1, Supporting Information). The molecular weight estimated from the free pNIPAM synthesized under the same condition is 26.3 kDa as determined by size-exclusion chromatography. The transition temperature of this pNIPAM fi lm determined through contact angle measurement is around 30 °C ( Figure S2, Supporting Information). This value is slightly lower than the normal lower critical solution temperature (LCST) (32 °C) of pNIPAM mainly because of the residue Cu 2+ salts and polar end groups introduced during the ATRP process. The D = 100 nm diameter Au NPs (from BBI Solutions with 10% monodispersity, Figure S3, Supporting Information) deposited on the fi lms from solution appear slightly embedded inside the pNIPAM brushes as seen in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images (inset Figure 1 ). Nanoparticle densities are varied up to 1 nanoparticle µm -2 to ensure that there is minimal coupling between nanoparticles, while the total scattering is maximized. Though this Au NP on mirror (NPoM) is related to the recent advances in small-gap constructs, [ 22 ] here the gap remains larger than the radius, reducing the plasmonic This is an ope...

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confidence: 99%

Fast Dynamic Color Switching in Temperature‐Responsive Plasmonic Films

Ding

Rüttiger

Zheng

et al. 2016

Advanced Optical Materials

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“…The capability of tailoring LCs to be responsive to other stimuli such as light [84][85][86][87], acoustic wave [88], and heat [89] has offered great flexibility on the selection of activation methods for AMP. For example, LCs doped with azobenzene that undergoes trans-cis photoisomerization become photoswitchable [84].…”

Section: Liquid Crystalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active molecular plasmonics: tuning surface plasmon resonances by exploiting molecular dimensions

et al. 2015

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Molecular plasmonics explores and exploits the molecule-plasmon interactions on metal nanostructures to harness light at the nanoscale for nanophotonic spectroscopy and devices. With the functional molecules and polymers that change their structural, electrical, and/or optical properties in response to external stimuli such as electric fields and light, one can dynamically tune the plasmonic properties for enhanced or new applications, leading to a new research area known as active molecular plasmonics (AMP). Recent progress in molecular design, tailored synthesis, and self-assembly has enabled a variety of scenarios of plasmonic tuning for a broad range of AMP applications. Dimension (i.e., zero-, two-, and threedimensional) of the molecules on metal nanostructures has proved to be an effective indicator for defining the specific scenarios. In this review article, we focus on structuring the field of AMP based on the dimension of molecules and discussing the state of the art of AMP. Our perspective on the upcoming challenges and opportunities in the emerging field of AMP is also included.

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“…The ability of light confinement below the diffraction limit with large near-field intensity enhancements through excitation of surface plasmons [1][2][3] has enabled various applications in biodetection field, i.e., surface-enhanced vibrational spectroscopy [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and label-free biosensing [11][12][13][14][15]. Surface plasmons, propagating at metal surfaces, can be utilized, e.g., in ultra-compact electro-optic modulators [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Response of Plasmonic Nanohole Arrays: Comparison of Square and Hexagonal Lattices

2015

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Nanohole arrays in metal films allow extraordinary optical transmission (EOT); the phenomenon is highly advantageous for biosensing applications. In this article, we theoretically investigate the performance of refractive index sensors, utilizing square and hexagonal arrays of nanoholes, that can monitor the spectral position of EOT signals. We present nearand far-field characteristics of the aperture arrays and investigate the influence of geometrical device parameters in detail. We numerically compare the refractive index sensitivities of the two lattice geometries and show that the hexagonal array supports larger figure-of-merit values due to its sharper EOT response. Furthermore, the presence of a thin dielectric film that covers the gold surface and mimics a biomolecular layer causes larger spectral shifts within the EOT resonance for the hexagonal array. We also investigate the dependence of the transmission responses on hole radius and demonstrate that hexagonal lattice is highly promising for applications demanding strong light transmission.

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Thermal Tuning of Surface Plasmon Polaritons Using Liquid Crystals

Cited by 60 publications

References 51 publications

Fast Dynamic Color Switching in Temperature‐Responsive Plasmonic Films

Fast Dynamic Color Switching in Temperature‐Responsive Plasmonic Films

Active molecular plasmonics: tuning surface plasmon resonances by exploiting molecular dimensions

Optical Response of Plasmonic Nanohole Arrays: Comparison of Square and Hexagonal Lattices

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