title: Infrared Plasmonics with Conductive Ternary Nitrides.
abstract: Conductive transition metal nitrides are emerging as promising alternative plasmonic materials that are refractory and CMOS-compatible. In this work, we show that ternary transition metal nitrides of the B1 structure and consisting of a combination of group-IVb transition metal, such as Ti or Zr, and group III (Sc, Y, Al) or group II (Mg, Ca) elements can have tunable plasmonic activity in the infrared range in contrast to Ta-based ternary nitrides, which exhibit plasmonic performance in the visible and UV ranges. We consider the intrinsic quality factors of surface plasmon polariton for the ternary nitrides, and we calculate the dispersion of surface plasmon polariton and the field enhancement at the vicinity of nitride/silica interfaces. Based on these calculations, it is shown that among these nitrides the most promising are TixSc1-xN and TixMg1-xN. In particular, TixSc1-xN can have plasmonic activity in the usual telecom bands at 850, 1300, and 1550 nm. Still, these nitrides exhibit substantial electronic losses mostly due to fine crystalline grains that deteriorate the plasmonic field enhancement. This unequivocally calls for improved growth processes that would enable the fabrication of such ternary nitrides of high crystallinity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Metaxa
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kassavetis
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean Lamour (UMR CNRS 7198), Université de Lorraine , Parc de Saurupt, 54011 Nancy cedex, France.
authors.forename: J F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8790-3162
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Pierson
authors.affiliation: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Troy, New York 12180, United States.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gall
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: P
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2876-6820
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patsalas
keywords: 1. Surface Plasmon Polariton; 2. Infrared; 3. Conductive Nitrides; 4. Conductor/Dielectric Interfaces