Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Controlled-reflectance surfaces with film-coupled colloidal nanoantennas

Nature volume 492, pages 86–89 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Efficient and tunable absorption is essential for a variety of applications, such as designing controlled-emissivity surfaces for thermophotovoltaic devices1, tailoring an infrared spectrum for controlled thermal dissipation2 and producing detector elements for imaging3. Metamaterials based on metallic elements are particularly efficient as absorbing media, because both the electrical and the magnetic properties of a metamaterial can be tuned by structured design4. So far, metamaterial absorbers in the infrared or visible range have been fabricated using lithographically patterned metallic structures2,5,6,7,8,9, making them inherently difficult to produce over large areas and hence reducing their applicability. Here we demonstrate a simple method to create a metamaterial absorber by randomly adsorbing chemically synthesized silver nanocubes onto a nanoscale-thick polymer spacer layer on a gold film, making no effort to control the spatial arrangement of the cubes on the film. We show that the film-coupled nanocubes provide a reflectance spectrum that can be tailored by varying the geometry (the size of the cubes and/or the thickness of the spacer). Each nanocube is the optical analogue of a grounded patch antenna, with a nearly identical local field structure that is modified by the plasmonic response of the metal’s dielectric function, and with an anomalously large absorption efficiency that can be partly attributed to an interferometric effect10. The absorptivity of large surface areas can be controlled using this method, at scales out of reach of lithographic approaches (such as electron-beam lithography) that are otherwise required to manipulate matter on the nanoscale.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Forming an ideal absorber.
Figure 2: Theoretical absorption efficiency of the nanocubes.
Figure 3: Silver nanocubes.
Figure 4: Tunability of the reflectance.

References

  1. Bermel, P. et al. Design and global optimization of high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic systems. Opt. Express 18, A314–A334 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hao, J. et al. High performance optical absorber based on a plasmonic metamaterial. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 251104 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Niesler, F., Gansel, J., Fischbach, S. & Wegener, M. Metamaterial metal-based bolometers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 203508 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Landy, N. I., Sajuyigbe, S., Mock, J. J., Smith, D. R. & Padilla, W. J. Perfect metamaterial absorber. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 207402 (2008)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Avitzour, Y., Urzhumov, Y. A. & Shvets, G. Wide-angle infrared absorber based on a negative-index plasmonic metamaterial. Phys. Rev. B 79, 045131 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, N., Mesch, M., Weiss, T., Hentschel, M. & Giessen, H. Infrared perfect absorber and its application as plasmonic sensor. Nano Lett. 10, 2342–2348 (2010)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Koechlin, C. et al. Total routing and absorption of photons in dual color plasmonic antennas. Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 241104 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wu, C. et al. Large-area wide-angle spectrally selective plasmonic absorber. Phys. Rev. B 84, 075102 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Tittl, A., Mai, P., Taubert, R., Dregely, D. & Giessen, N. L. H. Palladium-based plasmonic perfect absorber in the visible wavelength range and its application to hydrogen sensing. Nano Lett. 11, 4366–4369 (2011)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wan, W. et al. Time-reversed lasing and interferometric control of absorption. Science 331, 889–892 (2011)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Shalaev, V. Optical negative-index metamaterials. Nature Photon. 1, 41–48 (2007)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu, X. et al. Taming the blackbody with infrared metamaterials as selective thermal emitters. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 045901 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Dolling, G. et al. Cut-wire pairs and plate pairs as magnetic atoms for optical metamaterials. Opt. Lett. 30, 3198–3200 (2005)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Shalaev, V. M. et al. Negative index of refraction in optical metamaterials. Opt. Lett. 30, 3356–3358 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Yu, N. et al. Light propagation with phase discontinuities: generalized laws of reflection and refraction. Science 334, 333–337 (2011)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Shadrivov, I. V., Kapitanova, P., Maslovski, S. & Kivshar, Y. Metamaterials controlled with light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 083902 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Albooyeh, M. & Simovski, C. Maximal absorption and local field enhancement in planar plasmonic arrays. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2100v1 (2012)

  18. Bozhevolnyi, S. I. & Søndergaard, T. General properties of slow-plasmon resonant nanostructures: nano-antennas and resonators. Opt. Express 15, 10869–10877 (2007)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Moreau, A., Lafarge, C., Laurent, N., Edee, K. & Granet, G. Enhanced transmission of slits arrays in an extremely thin metallic film. J. Opt. A 9, 165–169 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Le Perchec, J., Quemerais, P., Barbara, A. & Lopez-Ros, T. Why metallic surfaces with grooves a few nanometers deep and wide may strongly absorb visible light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 066408 (2008)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Granet, G. & Plumey, J. Parametric formulation of the Fourier modal method for crossed surface-relief gratings. J. Opt. A 4, S145 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Sun, Y. & Xia, Y. Shape-controlled synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles. Science 298, 2176–2179 (2002)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Im, S. H., Lee, Y. T., Wiley, B. & Xia, Y. Large-scale synthesis of silver nanocubes: the role of HCl in promoting cube perfection and monodispersity. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 2154–2195 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Decher, G. Fuzzy nanoassemblies: toward layered polymeric multicomposites. Science 277, 1232–1237 (1997)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Marinakos, S. M., Chen, S. & Chilkoti, A. Plasmonic detection of a model analyte in serum by a gold nanorod sensor. Anal. Chem. 79, 5278–5283 (2007)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Michota, A., Kudelski, A. & Bukowska, J. Molecular structure of cysteamine monolayers on silver and gold substrates: comparative studies by surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Surf. Sci. 502–503, 214–218 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Wallwork, M. L., Smith, D. A., Zhang, J., Kirkham, J. & Robinson, C. Complex chemical force titration behavior of amine-terminated self-assembled monolayers. Langmuir 17, 1126–1131 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Mock, J. J. et al. Distance-dependent plasmon resonant coupling between a gold nanoparticle and gold film. Nano Lett. 8, 2245–2252 (2008)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Hanauer, M., Pierrat, S., Zins, I., Lotz, A. & Sõnnichsen, C. Separation of nanoparticles by gel electrophoresis according to size and shape. Nano Lett. 7, 2881–2885 (2007)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Anker, J. N. et al. Biosensing with plasmonic nanosensors. Nature Mater. 7, 442–453 (2008)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant no. FA9550-09-1-0562) and by the US Army Research Office through a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (grant no. W911NF-09-1-0539). Additional support includes US NIH grant R21EB009862, to A.C., and US NIH F32 award (F32EB009299), to R.T.H.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA

    Antoine Moreau, Cristian Ciracì, Jack J. Mock & David R. Smith

  2. Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, Institut Pascal, BP 10448, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France,

    Antoine Moreau

  3. CNRS, UMR 6602, IP, 63171 Aubière, France,

    Antoine Moreau

  4. Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA

    Ryan T. Hill & Ashutosh Chilkoti

  5. Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA

    Qiang Wang & Benjamin J. Wiley

  6. Laboratory for Micro-sized Functional Materials & College of Elementary Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Qiang Wang

  7. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA

    Ashutosh Chilkoti

Authors
  1. Antoine Moreau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cristian Ciracì
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jack J. Mock
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ryan T. Hill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Qiang Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Benjamin J. Wiley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Ashutosh Chilkoti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. David R. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.M. and C.C. ran the simulations. A.M., C.C., J.J.M. and D.R.S. conducted the physical analysis. Q.W. fabricated and characterized the nanocubes. R.T.H. made the substrates (gold and polyelectrolyte layers), measured their characteristics and deposited the cubes. J.J.M. built the experimental set-up and made the measurements. All the authors provided technical and scientific insight and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David R. Smith.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-8 and a Supplementary Discussion. The Supplementary Figures give experimental results regarding the independency of the absorption with respect to the polarization or the incidence angle. The Supplementary Discussion gives detailed explanations for the physical mechanisms of the absorption, the critical density theoretically required for ideal absorption, the size dispersion of the cubes and how it is taken into account and the definition of the effective cross section. (PDF 283 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Moreau, A., Ciracì, C., Mock, J. et al. Controlled-reflectance surfaces with film-coupled colloidal nanoantennas. Nature 492, 86–89 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11615

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11615

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing