Oxides and nitrides as alternative plasmonic materials in the optical range [Invited]

TLDR

New plasmonic materials such as transparent conducting oxides (Al:ZnO, Ga:ZnO, ITO) and transition‑metal nitrides (TiN, ZrN) offer low intrinsic loss, semiconductor‑based design, fabrication compatibility, and tunability, enabling high‑performance metamaterials in the near‑IR and visible. This paper details the fabrication and characterization of these materials and evaluates their suitability for metamaterial and plasmonic applications. The authors fabricate the oxides and nitrides, then characterize their optical properties to assess performance for plasmonic devices.

Abstract

As alternatives to conventional metals, new plasmonic materials offer many advantages in the rapidly growing fields of plasmonics and metamaterials. These advantages include low intrinsic loss, semiconductor-based design, compatibility with standard nanofabrication processes, tunability, and others. Transparent conducting oxides such as Al:ZnO, Ga:ZnO and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) enable many high-performance metamaterial devices operating in the near-IR. Transition-metal nitrides such as TiN or ZrN can be substitutes for conventional metals in the visible frequencies. In this paper we provide the details of fabrication and characterization of these new materials and discuss their suitability for a number of metamaterial and plasmonic applications.