Invited Paper
Aluminum Plasmonics

While the field of plasmonics has grown from initial interest in the plasmons of noble and coinage metals in various geometries, many envisioned applications call for patterning over large areas where low-cost and highly abundant materials would be most desirable. We have begun to study the properties of Aluminum as a plasmonic material, examining its plasmonic properties in simple geometries. [1] In nanostructures, the localized plasmon resonance is determined not only by the usual considerations of size, shape, and nature of dielectric environment, but also the concentration of bulk oxides that may be present in the structure. [2] The CMOS-compatibility of Al makes it quite desirable for device applications: a wavelength-sensitive photodetector that fully integrates color filtering with photosensitivity in a single device is one such example. A combination of near-field and far-field coupling effects can be used to render Al nanostructure arrays as vivid, monochromatic pixels suitable for flat-panel displays.[3] In addition to deposition methods, Al nanostructures can also be synthesized chemically, with unique geometries and tunable plasmon resonances.

[1] M. W. Knight, Lifei Liu, Yumin Wang, Lisa Brown, Shaunak Mukherjee, Nicholas S. King, Henry O. Everitt, Peter J. Nordlander, and N. J. Halas, “Aluminum Plasmonic Nanoantennas”, Nano Letters 12, 6000-4 (2012).

[2] Nicholas S. King, Mark W. Knight, Henry O. Everitt, Peter Nordlander, and N. J. Halas, “Aluminum for plasmonics”, ACS Nano 8, 834-840 (2014).

[3] Jana Olson, Alejandro Manjavacas, Lifei Liu, Wei-Shun Chang, Benjamin Foerster, Nicholas King, Mark W. Knight, Peter Nordlander, Naomi J. Halas, and Stephan Link, “Vivid, Full-Color Aluminum Plasmonic Pixels”, PNAS 111, 14348-14353 (2014).

halas@rice.edu