title: ITO/Au/ITO sandwich structure for near-infrared plasmonics.
abstract: ITO/Au/ITO trilayers with varying gold spacer layer thicknesses were deposited on glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Transmission electron microscopy measurements demonstrated the continuous nature of the Au layer down to 2.4 nm. XRD patterns clearly showed an enhanced crystallinity of the ITO films promoted by the insertion of the gold layer. Compared with a single layer of ITO with a carrier concentration of 7.12 × 10(20) cm(-3), the ITO/Au/ITO structure achieved an effective carrier concentration as high as 3.26 × 10(22) cm(-3). Transmittance and ellipsometry measurements showed that the optical properties of ITO/Au/ITO films were greatly influenced by the thickness of the inserted gold layer. The cross-point wavelength of the trilayer samples was reduced with increasing gold layer thickness. Importantly, the trilayer structure exhibited a reduced loss (compared with plain Au) in the near-infrared region, suggesting its potential for plasmonic applications in the near-infrared range.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Department of Optical Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Chee Leung
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Jiyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Kan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Chi Wah
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Leung
keywords: ITO/Au/ITO; electrical and optical properties; plasma frequency; pulsed laser deposition; transparent conductive oxide