Conducting Polymer Electrochemical Switching as an Easy Means for Designing Active Plasmonic Devices

Abstract

Due to the continuously increasing demand for ultimate miniaturization of electronic and photonic systems, molecular electronics and plasmonic devices are currently booming as alternative technologies because of their very promising potential in writing, reading, storing, and processing information at the nanoscale. Conducting polymers or oligomers have been proposed and used as basic building blocks in molecular and plastic electronics since the end of the 80s. Plasmonics is, on the other hand, an emerging branch of photonics which uses nanostructured materials that support surface plasmons. Among plasmonic devices, active plasmonic devices are still lacking. In this work, we report on new active molecular plasmonic devices in which the electrochemical switching of a nanometric film of conductive polymer between its reduced and oxidized state is used in order to control, switch, and modulate localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance of gold nanoparticle arrays.

Gold‐Nanoparticle‐Enhanced Plasmonic Effects in a Responsive Polymer Gel

“…The only exception are metallic thin films with periodic patterns (so-called plasmonic gratings and crystals), which exhibit a strong response to changes in e of a coating polymer owing to resonant plasmonic effects. [22,23] However, their fabrication requires advanced lithographic techniques (e.g., electron-beam lithography) which, along with the requirements for order and absence of defects, limits the choice of suitable substrates (e.g., such devices cannot be fabricated on flexible substrates or textiles).…”

Active molecular plasmonics: tuning surface plasmon resonances by exploiting molecular dimensions

“…One of the primary principles of AMP is to harness the externally controllable changes in the structural, electrical, and/or dielectric properties of organic materials for the dynamic tuning of SPs in terms of resonance wavelength, phase and/or amplitude, which is also the subject of this review. So far, a wide range of organic materials, including simple molecules, supramolecules, macromolecules, and polymers, has enabled AMP with various device configurations and applications [45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. It is noted that there is another important constituent part in the field of AMP, which involves the synergistic integration of plasmonic nanostructures with active gain media, such as dye molecules [52][53][54][55].…”

Electrochemical Modulation of the Optical Property of Polythiophene-Gold Nanorod Composite Films

“…LSPR frequency depends mainly on size, shape, electron density, and aggregated condition of nanoparticles, and furthermore on the index of surrounding medium. Modulating of LSPR frequency over a few tenths of nanometers was achieved by controlling the electron density [1] or by changing the index of electrochromic materials [2,3].…”