The determination of the thickness and the optical dispersion property of gold film using spectroscopy of a surface plasmon in the frequency domain

Abstract

We propose to use wavelength modulation approach, i.e., the spectroscopy of a surface plasmon in the frequency domain, to characterize the optical dispersion property of gold film. Using this method, we determine the dispersion relationship of gold film in a wavelength range from 537.12 nm to 905.52 nm, and our results accord well with the reported results by other authors. This method is particularly suited for studying the optical dispersion properties of thin metal films, because a series of dielectric constants over a wide spectral range can be determined simultaneously via only a single scan of the incident angle, thereby avoiding the repeated measurements required when using the angular modulation approach.

Low-cost, high performance surface plasmon resonance-compatible films characterized by the surface plasmon resonance technique

“…7, both |ε r (λ )| and ε i (λ ) at a given wavelength decrease as the thickness of TiO 2 increases. In the case of Au0, the results agree closely with the ones from our previous work, [52] the discrepancy might arise from the difference of surface roughness between the films. The major contributions to the experimental errors arise from the absolute angle measurement errors, the light source instability, the optical resolution of the spectrometer, and the light beam divergence.…”

“…The major contributions to the experimental errors arise from the absolute angle measurement errors, the light source instability, the optical resolution of the spectrometer, and the light beam divergence. The discussion about the experimental errors has been given previously, [52] the errors will not be estimated in this work because the errors could be smaller if a broadband source and a spectrometer with higher performance are employed. To investigate the sensitivities of prism-based SPR sensors in which the films are employed, the ratio between the resonant angle or wavelength shift and the refractive index change is defined as the sensitivity versus angle or wavelength, expressed as S θ or S λ .…”

“…Using this method, the SPR responses of an Au film and the TiO 2 -coated Cu films are characterized in a wavelength range from 600 nm to 900 nm at room temperature. Using the algorithm reported previously by us, [52] we determine the effective optical constants and thicknesses of the films by using SPR curves R(λ ). To our knowledge, it is the first time that the effective optical properties of TiO 2 -coated Cu films have been determined by using the SPR technique.…”

Thickness dependence of the optical constants of oxidized copper thin films based on ellipsometry and transmittance

“…[1,2] However, it is difficult to accurately measure the optical constants of ultrathin absorbing films by traditional optical methods. [3] Metallic materials suffer oxidation in ambient condition. The oxidation of copper has been studied under various experimental conditions; [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] most of them focused on the oxidation kinetics under high temperature.…”

Numerical investigation of the enhanced unidirectional surface plasmon polaritons generator

“…Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), propagating along the metal-insulator interface with an exponentially decaying electric field on both sides, have great potential as a new generation of information carriers: highly integrated nanophotonic devices. [1][2][3][4] Although many ultracompact optical devices based on SPPs have been proposed and demonstrated [5][6][7][8] , the efficient excitation method of SPPs remains the one fundamental issue in plasmonics. SPPs usually cannot be directly excited by the plane wave light.…”