Self‐Assembled Silver–Germanium Nanolayer Metamaterial with the Enhanced Nonlinear Response

Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces are important for many linear and nonlinear photonic applications. Here, the possibility to control a nanostructured layer spontaneously formed near an interface of a thin silver film is shown, where the interplay between a grain boundary structure and surfac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced optical materials 2017-11, Vol.5 (22), p.n/a
Main Authors: Stefaniuk, Tomasz, Olivier, Nicolas, Belardini, Alessandro, McPolin, Cillian P. T., Sibilia, Concita, Wronkowska, Aleksandra A., Wronkowski, Andrzej, Szoplik, Tomasz, Zayats, Anatoly V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic structure
Composite materials
Encapsulation
Germanium
Grain boundaries
Magnetic resonance
Materials science
Metamaterials
Nanostructure
Nonlinear response
Optical properties
Optics
Photonics
plasmonic metamaterials
Second harmonic generation
segregation
Silver
silver‐germanium composites
Thin films
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Summary:Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces are important for many linear and nonlinear photonic applications. Here, the possibility to control a nanostructured layer spontaneously formed near an interface of a thin silver film is shown, where the interplay between a grain boundary structure and surface segregation of germanium atoms leads to encapsulation of the grains and, as the result, formation of a composite metamaterial near the film surface. This Ag/Ge composite exhibits strong localized surface plasmon resonances at Ge‐encapsulated silver grains, leading to extraordinary second harmonic generation for both transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarized fundamental light with up to two orders of magnitude enhancement compared to thin Ag films without Ge atoms. Segregation phenomena open the possibility for fabrication of a new class of composite materials and gives additional degree of freedom in designing optical properties of nanostructured metamaterials. This study demonstrates the fabrication of a new class of compositeplasmonic materials with unique nonlinear optical properties. It is shown that due to a segregation process, the spontaneously formed smooth Ag/Ge nanolayer metamaterial exhibits strong localized surface plasmon resonances leading to extraordinary second harmonic generation for both transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarized light with up to two orders of magnitude enhancement.
ISSN:2195-1071
2195-1071
DOI:10.1002/adom.201700753