Surface Plasmon Resonances and Local Field Enhancement in Aluminum Nanoparticles Embedded in Silicon Nitride

Alexandre Fafin (1) , Sophie Camelio (1) , Frédéric Pailloux (1) , David Babonneau (1)

1 PPNa - Physique et Propriétés des Nanostructures [Institut Pprime]

We investigate the plasmonic response of periodic chains of flat aluminum nanoparti-cles capped with a transparent protective silicon nitride layer. The elaboration method is based on the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles by physical vapor deposition of Al at glancing incidence on a pre-patterned silicon nitride surface. A detailed structural characterization by transmission electron microscopy evidences a core@shell Al@AlN structure, with an in-plane particle size below 15 nm and a chain periodicity of about 30 nm. The nanoparticle assembly exhibits surface plasmon resonances whose spectral positions depend on the polarization of the electric field with respect to the particle chains, as revealed by absorbance measurements. Near-field calculations highlight the possible overlap between the surface plasmon resonance and the interband transitions of aluminum. The plasmonic behavior of such nanoparticle arrays suggests a potential for polarization-selective near-field enhancement over a broad spectral range.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Alexandre Fafin, Sophie Camelio, Frédéric Pailloux, David Babonneau. Surface Plasmon Resonances and Local Field Enhancement in Aluminum Nanoparticles Embedded in Silicon Nitride. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2019, 123 (22), pp.13908-13917. ⟨10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b03050⟩. ⟨hal-02151700⟩