2:00 PM - 2:15 PM
[13p-2Q-4] Fabrication of plasmonic nanodot arrays by nanofabrication of titanium nitride thin film
Keywords:surface plasmon polariton,titanium nitride,plasmonic array
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are the collective oscillations of free electrons coupled to electromagnetic waves at the interface between a metal and a dielectric. SPPs can dramatically enhance the electric field in the vicinity of the interface on the scale below the diffraction limit, which leads to many potential optical applications. Additionally, the plasmonic responses can be manipulated by constructing the metallic nanostructures with nanofabrication processes. In the optical frequencies, i.e., visible and infrared regions, noble metals such as gold and silver have been used almost exclusively as the metals to support SPPs. While showing very good plasmonic properties, they have problems in processing; they are incompatible with reactive ion etching, and they cannot be processed at high temperatures. Nitrides are one candidate that works as a plasmonic material in the optical frequencies. Especially, titanium nitride (TiN) attracts attention because of the high carrier concentrations ( > 1021 cm-3) and the compatibility with lithographic process. In addition, the abundance of the constituting elements, titanium and nitrogen, on earth is very attractive. In the present study, we have prepared epitaxial TiN thin films by using a pulsed laser deposition method. Taking advantage of compatibility of TiN with reactive ion etching, we have further fabricated periodic arrays of TiN nanodots from the thin films. Plasmonic properties of the arrays have been examined, in combination with the numerical calculation using finite element method.