Source

Wavelength
tunable surface
plasmon
resonanceenhanced optical
transmission
through chirped
diffraction grating.
Ellipsometry &
Reflectometry
(Harland
Tompkins)

Summary

The name ellipsometry is derived from elliptically polarized light.

If the material is well understood, single wavelength
ellipsometry can be used to measure layers which are a few tens
of angstroms thick.
SWE and reflectometry can be used when the sample is single
layer on a substrate. These two techniqes suffer when the
materials is not well understood (i.e. material with unknown
composition) or when multiple layers are involved.
The primary strength of spectroscopic ellipsometry is its ability to
analyze multiple layers e.g. degree of crystallinity in amorphous
silicon.
Maxwell equation and the resulting wave equation are analogous
to a differential equation which describes the forces on a body
and the resulting equation which describes the motion of the body
as a function of time.
Electric field and magnetic field of light are not independent. The
specification of electric field vector completely determines the
magnetic field vector and therefore only electric field vector is
considered when required.
The complex index of refraction is a combination of a real
number and an imaginary number and is designated as N=n-jk.
Where n is the index of refraction and k is the coefficient of
extinction.
The extinction coefficient k is a measure of how rapidly the
intensity decreases as the light passes through the material.
In an absorption medium, the decrease in intensity I per unit
length z is proportional to the value of I.
The extinction coefficient is related to the absorption coefficient

k=

4
Penetration depth is the distance when the original intensity falls
to 37% of initial value.
When a photon is emitted from a source, its electric field is

Soft lithographic
approchaes to
nanofabrication
Hybrid single
nanowire photonic
crystal and
microresonator
structures
Tuning optical
discs for
plasmonic
application
(Burkan Kaplan et.
Al.)

oriented in a given direction. The electric field of the next photon

will be oriented in a different direction, and in general photons
are emitted with electric fields oriented in all different directions.
This is called unpolarised light. In candescent light sources are
usually unpolarized whereas most lasers emit more or less
polarized light.
When two linearly polarized waves with the same frequency are
combined out of phase, the resultant wave is elliptically
polarized.
Elliptically polarized light is generated when linearly polarized
light is reflected from a surface under certain conditions. The
amount of ellipticity which is induced depends on the surface
(optical constants, presence of films etc.)

Plasmons are resonant interaction of light with materials of finite

carrier density and mobility. Such resonant effects can be
observed in metal films on dielectrics, in chemically synthesized
metal nanostructures, and in lithographically defined metal
nanostructures.
Resonant conditions are highly sensitive to nearby dielectric
properties.
A sharper resonance improves the overall sensitivity of plasmonic
devices for biomolecular sensing.
On a smooth planar interface of metal and dielectric, the surface
plasmon polarization wave-vector is given by:

2 2
n 1 n2
k SPP=
c n21 +n22

In the presence of a sinusoidal surface corrugation, the coupling

condition is modified by the pattern of the grating, and a plave
wave approaching the surface at a particular angle of incidence
can resonantly couple to the plasmonic excitation. The additional
parameter introduced, namely, the grating period, relaxes the
matching condition and gives greater freedom for the choice of
other parameters.
For higher peak absorption, the depth and shape of the gratings

Highly tunable
surface plasmon
enhanced optical
transmission
through periodic
nanostructures
(Hillier et. al.)

need to be tuned.
Preparation of grating from CD-R: the top protective layer was
peeled off by exfoliation using a tape after delineation of the
surface with a sharp cutter. Different brands of CDs have
different corrugation depth and grating shape.
For DVD, it has a strong protective layer, the inner surface was
exposed by first mechanically cutting a notch into the side of the
disc and then applying mechanical force to peel the two sides
apart.
Blue ray has nearly sinusoidal grating shape and therefore no
need to modify it chemically.
Period of CD-R is 1600 nm, DVD is 740 nm and Blue-ray is 320
nm. Aluminium is used as the coating for blu-ray as its silver has
enhanced absorption around 32 nm where the resonance occur for
blu ray.
Untreated gratings from CD and less shap peaks due to
unevenness and irregularity of the gratings periodicity and shape.
Alternative methods to modify the topography is by heat
treatment e.g. 150 degree celcius for 5 min or 140 degree celcius
for 30 min in an oven.
Low surface roughness is important for observing higher quality
factors. The surface roughness of silver layers is increased by
rapid silver evaporation. It can be reduced by reducing
evaporation rate of silver.

Optical modelling with periodic nano-structures.

Construction of nanostructures via laser interference lithography

Characterization of nanostructures

Applications

Energy transfer from the incident photons excites a collective

oscillation of free electrons, known as surface plasmon polaritons
(SPP). At the metal dielectric interface, SPPs produce an
evanescent wave that extend several hundred nanometer into the
surrounding medium. The resonance conditions are highly
sensitive to local environment, which makes them perfect for use
in thin films and adsorption testing.
In the presence of a film, with larger dielectric constant than the
surroundings, the increased the optical density results in a

Propagating
surface plasmon
resonances in two
dimensional
patterned gold
grating templates
and surface
enhanced Raman
scattering

Shape-Controlled
Synthesis and
Surface Plasmonic
Properties of
Metallic
Nanostructures

decrease in the energy associated with the SPP and corresponding

red-shift in the resonance position.
The pitch value of gratings affect the location (or wavelength) of
the transmission peaks while grating amplitude has a significant
impact on the magnitude of the transmission enhancement.
Plamonically resonant two-dimensional patterned templates can
also be considered to be superior to one-dimensional counterparts
as the resonant plasmonic modes in 2D structures can easily be
excited using transverse magnetic (TM), transverse electric (TE),
or mixed TM-TE polarized input pump. Hence an unpolarized
pump laser can effectively excite the plasmonic modes and give
rise to SERS
Fabrication of small periodic grating structures needs the
involvement of expensive instrumentation such as e-beam
lithography, focused ion bean milling, or by UV
photolithography with expensive UV optics and UV lasers.
Nanoimprint lithography can also be used considered as an
effective and simple tool for quick reproduction of nanopatterns.
However, expensive master template are needed.
Alternatively through chemical approaches, small metal spheres
can be arranged on a preformed template in a regular fashion and
achieved very small gap in between them (<25nm)in order to
obtain large localized fields in the nanogaps.
The attractions of SPs lie in their potential to confine light to the
metal/dielectric interface, which in turn generates intense local
electromagnetic fields and greatly amplifies the weak signal
typical of Raman scattering or second-harmonic generation.
Many metals (e.g., alkali metals, Mg, Al, and to some extent
noble metals such as Au and Ag) can be treated as free-electron
systems whose electronic and optical properties are determined
by the conduction electrons alone. In the DrudeLorentz model,
such a metal is denoted as a plasma, because it contains equal
numbers of positive ions (fixed in position) and conduction
electrons (free and highly mobile).
Under the irradiation of an electromagnetic wave, the free
electrons are driven by the electric field to coherently oscillate at
a plasma frequency of p relative to the lattice of positive
ions.
For a bulk metal with infinite sizes in all three dimensions, p can

N e2

=
p
be expressed as
0 me

( )

electrons, 0

1
2

where N is the number density of

is the dielectric constant of a vacuum, and e and

me are the charge and effective mass of an electron,

respectively. Quantized plasma oscillations are called plasmons.

an electromagnetic wave impinging on a metal surface only has a
certain penetration depth (<50 nm for Ag and Au), just the
electrons on the surface are the most significant. Their collective
oscillation are called surface plasmon polaritons.
By resonance, we mean a condition in which the frequencies and
wave vectors of both incident and SP waves are approximately
the same, leading to constructive interference and a stronger
signal.
The gold and silver systems are unique because their densities of
free electrons are in the proper range to give their nanoparticles
SP peaks in the visible regime.