AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Electronic Materials and Processing Tuesday Sessions
       Session EM-TuP

Paper EM-TuP6
Tunable Optical Extinction of E-Beam Fabricated Nano-Rectennas Modified by Atomic-Layer Deposition

Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 6:30 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Electronic Materials and Processing Poster Session
Presenter: Raymond Wambold, The Pennsylvania State University
Authors: R.A. Wambold, The Pennsylvania State University
G.J. Weisel, The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona
D.T. Zimmerman, The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona
J. Qi, University of Connecticut
B.G. Willis, University of Connecticut
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We present a systematic study of plasmon extinction characteristics of arrays of tunable nanoscale rectennas, which have possible application as solar-energy harvesting devices and optical-IR sensors. Each nanorectenna is composed of a triangular prism and a flat counter-electrode, both made of palladium. We fabricate arrays of rectennas on silica using standard electron-beam lithography. We then use atomic-layer deposition (ALD) of copper to control the gap distance between the two electrodes. To measure optical extinction we employ a broadband (Quartz-tungsten-halogen) light source in a confocal, transmission arrangement. Our measurements demonstrate that the plasmon extinction resonance can be tailored by varying the e-beam dose and the cycles of ALD. The most important feature of our work is the ability to reduce the gap spacing between the two electrodes, which serves to systematically redshift the extinction peak and ultimately bring the two electrodes into the tunneling regime. We also investigate the effects of overall size, morphology, and material properties on the extinction resonance. We employ Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations to support our device design and to corroborate our experimental measurements. In addition, we use scanning electron microscopy to correlate the device-dimension and morphology changes to the plasmon extinction characteristics.