A layer of silver nanoparticles created by thermal annealing of evaporated silver films can increase the photocurrents in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices by fivefold or more, but significant enhancements have been restricted to wavelengths greater than 800 nm. Here we report a significant enhancement of photoconductance at shorter wavelengths (500-750 nm) by using a monolayer of silver nanoparticles transferred from a colloidal suspension. Photocurrents on SOI increased in the 500-750 nm spectral range with the addition of silver nanoparticles, with enhancements more than two times; enhancements at longer wavelengths were small, in contrast to results with annealed silver films. We prepared similar colloidal silver nanoparticle monolayers layers on nanocrystalline silicon solar cells with conducting oxide top layers. There is an overall decrease in the quantum efficiency of these cells with the deposition of silver nanoparticles. We attribute these effects to the substantial substrate-mediated changes in the localized surface plasmon resonance frequencies of the differing nanoparticle configurations.

We have developed a novel strategy for elaborating composite plasmonic nanomaterials in a well controlled manner. Combining several techniques commonly used in microelectronic engineering, namely sputtering deposition, thermal oxidation, ultra low energy ion implantation, focused ion beam lithography, thermal or laser annealing, we have obtained 3D patterned optical layers. Their spatial and spectral responses take benefit of optical interference, plasmonic resonance effects and coupling between excitations in both near and far field regime. Moreover these structures show high level of uniformity, reproducibility and stability, and they preserve flat and chemically uniform surfaces.

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances (LSPR) in rod-shaped Gold (Au) nanoparticles patterned with Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) technique are observed via reflectance measurements. Resonance peaks corresponding to the principal axes of the nano-rods are shown to be affected by each other. Excitation of one of the peaks is found to result in a decrease in the peak intensity of the resonance through the other axis. Arrays of Au nanoparticles with constant width and thickness but increasing length are examined for further understanding of the effect. As the particle length increased from 70 nm to 300 nm, resonance peak wavelength shifted from 650 nm to 1200 nm. Total reflectance intensities of samples with varying principal axis dimensions obtained through the spectral region of interest are also examined to see the relation between contributing electrons and total amount of reflected intensity. Results corresponding to both polarized and unpolarized illumination of samples are presented together to gain better understanding of lowered reflectance peak intensities obtained from the latter case. Based on the results obtained so far, nano-sized metal rods are promising tools for optically switched intensity modulation in the visible and near-IR region.

Electromagnetic radiation beyond the diffraction limit with a particular polarization emerges as a need for plasmonic applications. One of these applications is all-optical magnetic recording, which requires circularly-polarized electromagnetic radiation. In this study, a plasmonic cross-dipole nano-antenna is illuminated with diffraction-limited linearly polarized radiation. An optimal configuration for the nano-antenna and the polarization angle of the incident light is identified to obtain linearly, circularly, and elliptically polarized optical spots beyond the diffraction limit. The Poincaré sphere representation is utilized to visually present calculated Stokes parameters for optical spots with linear, circular, and elliptical polarizations from specific antenna geometries.

Infrared absorption spectroscopy is a powerful tool for structural and functional studies of biomolecules. The technique enables direct access to the vibrational fingerprints of molecular bonds in the mid-infrared spectral region (3-20μm). Although intrinsic absorption cross-sections are nearly ten orders of magnitude greater than corresponding Raman cross-sections, they are still small in comparison with those of fluorescent molecules. Sensitivity improvements are therefore required for the method to be applicable to single molecule / molecular layer studies. In this work, we demonstrate the use of lithographically patterned arrays of nanoantennas to enhance the absorption signature of the protein amide-I and II backbone vibrations. Strong absorption signals from monolayer thickness films are obtained. By arranging ensembles of tailored antennas in specific lattices, higher quality factor resonances and increased near-field intensities are possible. These features are leveraged to obtain 104-105 fold signal enhancements and the direct measurement of vibrational spectra of proteins at zepto-mole sensitivity levels.

A cost-effective fabrication method to engineer metamaterial structures with micrometersize features and novel mechanical properties, which are suitable for terahertz applications, is reported herein. The effective metamaterial parameter extraction procedure is employed with the Kramers-Kronig relation to analyze the effective parameters of single- and multilayer metamaterial structures.

Three antidot arrays with FeNi alloy thickness of 20, 50 and 100 nm have been patterned using magnetron sputtering followed by the electron-beam lithography and lift-off technique. Ferromagnetic resonance technique was used to study dynamic properties of the antidot arrays. These results were compared with the measurements of continuous films with the same composition and thickness. Two distinct resonant fields have been observed for the bias field aligned with the edges of the square holes. Resonance peaks shifted towards each other and eventually merged when the in-plane bias field was rotated towards diagonal of the squares. This dependence has been explained in terms of magnetostatic energy associated with the square holes. The magnitude of this effect was decreasing for the arrays with the reduced thickness. The perpendicular and lateral quantized standing spin wave modes were detected in the reference films and the antidot arrays due to the perpendicular and lateral dimensional confinements.

We develop experimentally and theoretically plasmonic and photonic crystals for enhancing thin film silicon solar cells. Thin film amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells suffer from decreased absorption of red and near-infrared photons, where the photon absorption length is large. Simulations predict maximal light absorption for a pitch of 700-800 nm for photonic crystal hole arrays in silver or ZnO/Ag back reflectors, with absorption increases of ~12%. The photonic crystal improves over the ideal randomly roughened back reflector (or the ‘4n2 limit’) at wavelengths near the band edge. We fabricated metallic photonic crystal back-reflectors using photolithography and reactive-ion etching. We conformally deposited a-Si:H solar cells on triangular lattice hole arrays of pitch 760 nm on silver back-reflectors. Electron microscopy demonstrates excellent long range periodicity and conformal a-Si:H growth. The measured quantum efficiency increases by 7-8 %, relative to a flat reflector reference device, with enhancement factors exceeding 6 at near-infrared wavelengths. The photonic crystal back reflector strongly diffracts light and increases optical path lengths of solar photons.

The surface plasmon enhanced transmission of light though a plasmonic crystal provides a novel approach for fabricating an optical modulator. The extraordinary transmission passing though these patterned metallic films is very sensitive to the surface dielectric environment. In this study, hexagonal lattice plasmonic crystals were fabricated with a self-assembly technique. Arrays of gold nano-holes or bumps with 500/600 nm periodicity were used to test the sensitivity of plasmon resonance wavelength for liquids and polymers with different dielectric constants. A nonlinear optical polymer P3HT coated onto the plasmonic crystal and pumped with 475 nm laser was found to modulate the transmission of a normally incident red light at 670 nm.

The second order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of two different ionic selfassembled multilayer (ISAM) films combined with Ag nanoparticles have been investigated. The plasmon resonances in the Ag particles concentrate the incident light, markedly increasing in the NLO efficiencies of the films. We find that the efficiency enhancement is significantly larger in conventional ISAM films compared to films made using a hybrid covalent ISAM technique (HCISAM), even though the intrinsic bulk second order non-linear susceptibility (χ(2)) is much larger for HCISAM films. We attribute this to the interfaces in HCISAM films being much easier to disrupt by external perturbations such as the metal deposition by which the nanoparticles are fabricated. We conclude that because the plasmon decay length is very short, the plasmonic enhancement of NLO effects primarily occurs at and near the film-particle interface. To discern the importance of the interfaces, we surrounded thin ISAM and HCISAM films with NLOinactive buffer layers, which confirmed this hypothesis, particularly in the case of HCISAM films.

Resonant optical dipole antennas, consisting either of two arms coupled by a small gap or of a single, uncoupled arm only, are fabricated by the application of electron beam lithography and gold evaporation. Using dark-field microscopy, scattering spectra of structures with varied antenna arm length and varied gap size are obtained. The results show not only a spectral redshift for coupled structures compared to single arm structures, but also that the far-field scattering intensity is significantly higher for two arm structures with gap. In addition to the dipole structures, first fabrication results on quadrupole antennas and split-ring antennas are presented, offering novel pathways for an enhancement of the optical response function.