Collective electronic excitations in the ultra violet regime in 2-D and 1-D carbon nanostructures achieved by the addition of foreign atoms.
Plasmons in the visible/UV energy regime have attracted great attention, especially in nano-materials, with regards to applications in opto-electronics and light harvesting; tailored enhancement of such plasmons is of particular interest for prospects in nano-plasmonics. This work demonstrates that it is possible, by adequate doping, to create excitations in the visible/UV regime in nano-carbon materials, i.e., carbon nanotubes and graphene, with choice of suitable ad-atoms and dopants, which are introduced directly into the lattice by low energy ion implantation or added via deposition by evaporation. Investigations as to whether these excitations are of collective nature, i.e., have plasmonic character, are carried out via DFT calculations and experiment-based extraction of the dielectric function. They give evidence of collective excitation behaviour for a number of the introduced impurity species, including K, Ag, B, N, and Pd. It is furthermore demonstrated that such excitations can be concentrated at nano-features, e.g., along nano-holes in graphene through metal atoms adhering to the edges of these holes.
Department of Physics and Energy, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
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Bangert
School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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Pierce
Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Gruenberg Institute Juelich Research Centre, D-52425 Juelich, Germany.
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Boothroyd
School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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Pan
Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
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Gwilliam