Scientific Reports (Oct 2024)

Active infrared tuning of metal–insulator-metal resonances by VO2 thin film

  • Emilija Petronijevic,
  • Maria Cristina Larciprete,
  • Marco Centini,
  • Lucilla Pronti,
  • Vincenzo Aglieri,
  • Luca Razzari,
  • Andrea Toma,
  • Roberto Macaluso,
  • Roberto Li Voti,
  • Concita Sibilia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-75430-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract VO2 is a promising phase change material offering a large contrast of electric, thermal, and optical properties when transitioning from semiconductor to metallic phase. Here we show that a hybrid metamaterial obtained by proper combination of a VO2 layer and a nanodisk gold array provides a tunable plasmonic gap resonance in the infrared range. Specifically, we have designed and fabricated a metal–insulator-metal gap resonance by inserting sub-wavelength VO2 film between a flat gold layer and a gold nanodisk resonator array. The resonance of the hybrid metamaterial is centered in the useful 3–5 μm range when VO2 is in its semiconductor state. The experimental study highlights a monotonical spectral tuning of the resonance when increasing temperature up to 50 °C above the room temperature, providing a continuous resonance shift of almost 1 μm in the mid-infrared range. Wavelength range and intensity tunability can be further optimized by modifying the thicknesses of the layers and metamaterial parameters.

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