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Electrical tuning of a quantum plasmonic resonance

Nature Nanotechnology volume 12, pages 866–870 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Surface plasmon (SP) excitations in metals facilitate confinement of light into deep-subwavelength volumes and can induce strong light–matter interaction1,2. Generally, the SP resonances supported by noble metal nanostructures are explained well by classical models, at least until the nanostructure size is decreased to a few nanometres, approaching the Fermi wavelength λF of the electrons3,4,5,6. Although there is a long history of reports on quantum size effects in the plasmonic response of nanometre-sized metal particles7,8,9,10,11,12, systematic experimental studies have been hindered by inhomogeneous broadening in ensemble measurements3, as well as imperfect control over size, shape, faceting, surface reconstructions13, contamination14, charging effects15 and surface roughness16 in single-particle measurements. In particular, observation of the quantum size effect in metallic films and its tuning with thickness has been challenging as they only confine carriers in one direction. Here, we show active tuning of quantum size effects in SP resonances supported by a 20-nm-thick metallic film of indium tin oxide (ITO), a plasmonic material serving as a low-carrier-density Drude metal17,18,19,20,21. An ionic liquid (IL)22,23 is used to electrically gate and partially deplete the ITO layer. The experiment shows a controllable and reversible blue-shift in the SP resonance above a critical voltage. A quantum-mechanical model including the quantum size effect reproduces the experimental results, whereas a classical model only predicts a red shift.

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Figure 1: Electrical tuning of the quantum plasmonic resonance of an ITO film.
Figure 2: Electrical manipulation of the carrier-density distribution and SP resonance of a 20-nm-thick ITO film.
Figure 3: The dependence of the observed quantum size effect on the ITO film thickness.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Extreme Electron Concentration Devices (EXEDE) MURI program of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) through grant no. N00014-12-1-0976. H.T.Y. and Y.C. acknowledge support by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515.

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Author notes

  1. Xiaoge Liu and Ju-Hyung Kang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Xiaoge Liu, Ju-Hyung Kang, Hongtao Yuan, Junghyun Park, Soo Jin Kim, Yi Cui, Harold Y. Hwang & Mark L. Brongersma

  2. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    Hongtao Yuan, Yi Cui & Harold Y. Hwang

  3. National Laboratory of Solid-State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Hongtao Yuan

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Contributions

X.L., J.-H.K. and M.L.B. conceived the ideas for this research project. X.L. and J.-H.K. developed the condition for the ITO layer deposition and fabricated the sample. X.L. annealed the sample for carrier concentration control of ITO. H.T.Y., Y.C. and H.Y.H. contributed to the IL gating. J.-H.K., X.L. and S.J.K. carried out the optical experiments. X.L. developed the quantum confinement model and performed the calculation. J.-H.K., J.P. and X.L. developed the transfer matrix method calculation. X.L., J.-H.K. and M.L.B. wrote the manuscript. M.L.B. supervised the project. All authors discussed the manuscript and agreed on its final content.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ju-Hyung Kang or Mark L. Brongersma.

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Liu, X., Kang, JH., Yuan, H. et al. Electrical tuning of a quantum plasmonic resonance. Nature Nanotech 12, 866–870 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.103

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