Ultraviolet interband plasmonics down to the vacuum UV with ultrathin amorphous silicon nanostructures
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908398505689088 |
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| author | Toudert, Johann Serna, Rosalía Sánchez, Javier Martín Larruquert, Juan I. Calvo-Barrio, Lorenzo |
| author_facet | Toudert, Johann Serna, Rosalía Sánchez, Javier Martín Larruquert, Juan I. Calvo-Barrio, Lorenzo |
| contents | Silicon dominates electronics, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and photonics thanks to its suitable properties, abundance, and well-developed cost-effective manufacturing processes. Recently, crystalline silicon has been demonstrated to be an appealing alternative plasmonic material, both for the infrared where free-carrier plasmons are enabled by heavy doping, and for the ultraviolet where plasmonic effects are induced by interband transitions. Herein, we demonstrate that nanostructured amorphous silicon exhibits such so-called interband plasmonic properties in the ultraviolet, as opposed to the expectation that they would only arise in crystalline materials. We report optical plasmon resonances in the 100-to-300 nm wavelength range in ultrathin nanostructures. These resonances shift spectrally with the nanostructure shape and the nature of the surrounding matrix, while their field enhancement properties turn from epsilon-near-zero plasmonic to surface plasmonic. We present a vacuum ultraviolet wavelength- and polarization-selective ultrathin film absorber design based on deeply-subwavelength anisotropically-shaped nanostructures. These findings reveal amorphous silicon as a promising material platform for ultracompact and room-temperature-processed ultraviolet plasmonic devices operating down to vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths, for applications including anticounterfeiting, data encryption and storage, sensing and detection. Furthermore, these findings raise a fundamental question on how plasmonics can be based on amorphous nanostructures. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_09494 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Ultraviolet interband plasmonics down to the vacuum UV with ultrathin amorphous silicon nanostructures Toudert, Johann Serna, Rosalía Sánchez, Javier Martín Larruquert, Juan I. Calvo-Barrio, Lorenzo Optics Materials Science Silicon dominates electronics, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and photonics thanks to its suitable properties, abundance, and well-developed cost-effective manufacturing processes. Recently, crystalline silicon has been demonstrated to be an appealing alternative plasmonic material, both for the infrared where free-carrier plasmons are enabled by heavy doping, and for the ultraviolet where plasmonic effects are induced by interband transitions. Herein, we demonstrate that nanostructured amorphous silicon exhibits such so-called interband plasmonic properties in the ultraviolet, as opposed to the expectation that they would only arise in crystalline materials. We report optical plasmon resonances in the 100-to-300 nm wavelength range in ultrathin nanostructures. These resonances shift spectrally with the nanostructure shape and the nature of the surrounding matrix, while their field enhancement properties turn from epsilon-near-zero plasmonic to surface plasmonic. We present a vacuum ultraviolet wavelength- and polarization-selective ultrathin film absorber design based on deeply-subwavelength anisotropically-shaped nanostructures. These findings reveal amorphous silicon as a promising material platform for ultracompact and room-temperature-processed ultraviolet plasmonic devices operating down to vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths, for applications including anticounterfeiting, data encryption and storage, sensing and detection. Furthermore, these findings raise a fundamental question on how plasmonics can be based on amorphous nanostructures. |
| title | Ultraviolet interband plasmonics down to the vacuum UV with ultrathin amorphous silicon nanostructures |
| topic | Optics Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.09494 |