Rewritable Nanoplasmonics through Room-Temperature Phase Manipulations of Vanadium Dioxide

Abstract

The interactions between light and plasmonic charge oscillations in conducting materials are important venues for realizing nanoscale light manipulations. Conventional metalbased plasmonic devices lack tunability due to the fixed material permittivities. Here, we show that reconfigurable plasmonic functionalities can be achieved using the spatially controlled phase transitions in strongly correlated oxide films. The experimental results discussed here are enabled by a recently developed scanning probe-based technique that allows a nonvolatile, monoclinic-metal VO 2 phase to be reversibly patterned at the nanoscale in ambient conditions. Using this technique, rewritable waveguides, spatially modulated plasmonic resonators, and reconfigurable wire-grid polarizers are successfully demonstrated. These structures, effectively controlling infrared lights through spatially confined mobile carriers, showcase a great potential for building programmable nanoplasmonic devices on correlated oxide platforms.

Reversible Nanomodulation of Thin Vanadium Dioxide Films by a Tip-Induced Electric Field

“…The oxygen ions provided by the VO 2 are supposed to be attracted to the top surface and react with the hydronium ions. The produced oxygen vacancies are compelled to the opposite side, which make the local VO 2 film more insulating. ,, When a negative bias is applied, the ions and vacancies may behave oppositely. As a consequence, the tip written area will have different structural, electric, or optical properties as compared with the unprocessed area.…”

Self-Assembled Dichroic Plasmonic Nitride Nanostructures with Broken Centrosymmetry for Second-Harmonic Generation

“…It is worth noting that the proposed process is generic and might be very efficient for the production of nanostructures of a wide variety of alternative nonmetallic conductors, which are usually grown by sputter deposition, such as molybdenum nitride (MoN), tantalum nitride (TaN), ,, niobium nitride (NbN), In-doped tin oxide (ITO), ,, aluminum- or gallium-doped zinc oxide (AZO, GZO), ,,, niobium-doped titanium oxide (NTO), partly reduced molybdenum oxides MoO x ( x < 3), , and vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ), which exhibits a metal–insulator transition. , All these conductors have been proposed as alternative plasmonic materials, whose plasmonic activity spans the far-ultraviolet to medium-infrared range. ,,,,,− …”

Plasmonic metal oxides and their biological applications

“…191 The integration of metallic and insulating VO 2 shows the possibility to modulate the LSPR properties on-demand as demonstrated in rewritable waveguides, spatial modulators, and reconfigurable wire-grid polarizers. 192 VO 2 nanomaterials exhibit a great potential to be employed in many applications such as smart windows, on-chip nanophotonic devices, etc. , and their unique optical properties are valuable to be further exploited.…”