Electrochemical restructuring of plasmonic metamaterials

  • Autor: M. Ruther, L. Shao, S. Linden, J. Weissmüller, and M. Wegener
  • Quelle: Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 013112 (2011)
  • Datum: 7.1.2011
  • Abstract:

    Recent electrochemical experiments on gold-based photonic metamaterials have shown reversible optical modulation as well as an irreversible reduction in the plasmonic damping. Here, we systematically study the latter aspect as a possible means of postprocessing plasmonic gold nanoantennae arrays aiming at loss reduction. We characterize the samples by optical spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and atomic-force microscopy. For sub-10 nm gold thicknesses, the measured damping decreases by factors exceeding 3; for 20–30 nm thin structures, the obtained loss reduction still amounts to about 30%.