Abnormal in-plane epitaxy and formation mechanism of vertically aligned Au nanopillars in self-assembled CeO 2 –Au metamaterial systems
Metamaterials present great potential in the applications of solar cells and nanophotonics, such as super lenses and other meta devices, owing to their superior optical properties. In particular, hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) with exceptional optical anisotropy offer improved manipulation of light–matter interactions as well as a divergence in the density of states and thus show enhanced performances in related fields. Recently, the emerging field of oxide–metal vertically aligned nanocomposites (VANs) suggests a new approach to realize HMMs with flexible microstructural modulations. In this work, a new oxide–metal metamaterial system, CeO2–Au, has been demonstrated with variable Au phase morphologies from nanoparticle-in-matrix (PIM),more »