Nanophotonics profits enormously from the unique optical response shown by metamaterials and multilayers based in oxides. The functional optical response is achieved by either embedding non-oxide nano-resonators to enable a plasmonic behavior, or by modifying the oxide composition/structure to tune its optical, electronic and magnetic properties. In this contribution first, we review the non-conventional plasmonics based on elements of the p-block. The plasmonic response has its origin on the interband transitions of these elements in the infrared [1,2]. Especial emphasis will be made on bismuth nano-resonator structures because Bi shows the strongest interband transitions reported so far [3]. Second, we will show the key role of oxide layers in the design of plasmonic metamaterials to enable a strong coupling between plasmonic and photonic modes. Such coupling has demonstrated to be instrumental for development of high resolution optical thermometry sensors [4]. Finally, we show how the fine control of the composition of europium monoxide (EuO) nanocrystalline films induces a large tuning of its band-gap and of the ferroelectric response, which is necessary for its integration in optical and spintronics platforms [5].
[1]. J. Toudert, and R. Serna, Opt. Mat. Expr. 7, 2434 (2016);
[2]. J. Toudert, and R. Serna, Opt. Mater. Express 7, 2299 (2017);
[3]. J. Toudert, R. Serna, I. Camps, J. Wojcik, P. Mascher, E. Rebollar, T. Ezquerra, J. Phys. Chem. C 121, 3511 ( 2017);
[4] G. Baraldi, M.García Pardo, J. Gonzalo, R. Serna and J. Toudert, Adv. Mater. Interfaces 5, 1870058 (2018);
[5] A. Mariscal, et al., Appl. Surf. Science 456,980 (2018).
|