Title: Tuning of Plasmons in Transparent Conductive Oxides by Carrier Accumulation

Abstract

A metal naturally displays dramatic changes in its optical properties near the plasma frequency where the permittivity changes from a negative to a positive value, and the material turns from highly reflective to transparent. For many applications, it is desirable to achieve such large optical changes by electrical gating. However, this is challenging given the high carrier density of most metals, which causes them to effectively screen externally applied electrical fields. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a low-electron-density metal that does afford electric tuning of its permittivity in the infrared spectral range. In this paper, we experimentally show the tunability of the plasma frequency of an ITO thin film by changing its sheet carrier density via gating with an ionic liquid. By applying moderate gate bias values up to 1.4 V, the electron density increases in a thin (~3 nm) accumulation layer at the surface of the 15-nm-thick ITO film. This results in notable blue shifts in the plasma frequency. These optical and electrical changes are monitored simultaneously, which facilitates construction of a model that provides a consistent picture for the dc electrical and infrared optical properties. It can be used to quantitatively predict the optical changes in the ITOmore » layer with applied bias. Finally, this work builds our understanding of electrically tunable plasmonic materials and aids the design of ultracompact, active nanophotonic elements.« less

Authors:

Liu, Xiaoge ^[1]; Kang, Ju-Hyung ^[1]; Yuan, Hongtao ^[2]; Park, Junghyun ^[1]; Cui, Yi  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Cui, Yi"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6103-6352"

Hwang, Harold Y. ^[3]; Brongersma, Mark L.  ^[1]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Brongersma, Mark L."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1777-8970"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials
2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences; Nanjing Univ. (China). National Lab. of Solid-State Microstructures. College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures
3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences

Publication Date:

Wed Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Office of Naval Research (ONR) (United States); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

OSTI Identifier:

1471531

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515; N00014-12-1-0976; FA9550-17-1-0002

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

ACS Photonics

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2330-4022

Publisher:

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; electrical gating; surface plasmon polariton; transparent conductive oxides; tunable plasmonics