Plasmonic tuning of aluminum doped zinc oxide nanostructures by atomic layer deposition

Currently there is a strong interest in plasmonic materials operating in the near-infrared (NIR), however, conventional metals such as gold and silver possess high optical losses in this region. In this work we demonstrate localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) with low loss in the NIR region by utilizing atomic layer deposition to deposit thin films of aluminium doped zinc oxide onto silicon nanopillars created via nanopshere lithography. The deposited films have excellent conformality and the LSPRs can be tuned from the mid-infrared to the NIR by controlling the doping concentration, deposition temperature and nanostructure morphology. ((c) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)