Low-Temperature Plasmonics of Metallic Nanostructures

Abstract

The requirements for spatial and temporal manipulation of electromagnetic fields on the nanoscale have recently resulted in an ever-increasing use of plasmonics for achieving various functionalities with superior performance to those available from conventional photonics. For these applications, ohmic losses resulting from free-electron scattering in the metal is one major limitation for the performance of plasmonic structures. In the low-frequency regime, ohmic losses can be reduced at low temperatures. In this work, we study the effect of temperature on the optical response of different plasmonic nanostructures and show that the extinction of a plasmonic nanorod metamaterial can be efficiently controlled with temperature with transmission changes by nearly a factor of 10 between room and liquid nitrogen temperatures, while temperature effects in plasmonic crystals are relatively weak (transmission changes only up to 20%). Because of the different nature of the plasmonic interactions in these types of plasmonic nanostructures, drastically differing responses (increased or decreased extinction) to temperature change were observed despite identical variations of the metal's permittivity.

Temperature dependence of the surface plasmon resonance in gold nanoparticles

“…In this paper, we present experimental results on the temperature dependence of the SP resonance energy and width in copper nanoparticles 17-59 nm in size embedded in the silica matrix in the temperature interval 293-460 K. We have observed that an increase of the temperature of a sample leads to the red shift and the broadening of the SP resonance, which is similar to our results [36] obtained for Ag nanoparticles in silica at high temperatures and to results of Bouillard et al [33] obtained for Au nanostructures at low temperatures. We analyze the observed temperature dependence of the SP resonance within the framework of a theoretical model considering such phenomena as the thermal volume expansion of a nanoparticle, electron-phonon scattering in a nanoparticle, and temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity of the host matrix.…”

Temperature dependence of quantum dot fluorescence assisted by plasmonic nanoantennas

“…To explain this result, it is important to note that we have neglected the influence of the temperature on the Au rings themselves in the discussion. As documented in a few studies, the plasmonic properties of nanoparticles with significant surface roughness such as our lithographied rings are only marginally affected by the temperature, except for a slight narrowing and blue shifting of the peak as T decreases [38]. This is such a spectral evolution that we observe in Fig.…”

Temperature-dependent optical properties of gold thin films

“…More recently, there have been reports on the temperature dependent optical constants of 200-nm-thick silver films [16][17][18] as well as the temperature changes in the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles embedded in silica at elevated temperatures 19 . At low temperatures, optical properties of ultrathin Au films in the mid-and far-infrared regions 20 and the optical response of gold nanorods and plasmonic crystals 21 have also been studied. However, a comprehensive study of the optical properties of gold thin films with varying thicknesses over a wide wavelength range at elevated temperatures has not been conducted.…”