Abstract
The a priori ability to design electromagnetic wave propagation is crucial for the development of novel metamaterials. Incorporating plasmonic building blocks is of particular interest due to their ability to confine visible light. Here we explore the use of anisotropy in nanoscale and mesoscale plasmonic array architectures to produce noble metal-based metamaterials with unusual optical properties. We find that the combination of nanoscale and mesoscale anisotropy leads to rich opportunities for metamaterials throughout the visible and near-infrared. The low volume fraction (<5%) plasmonic metamaterials explored herein exhibit birefringence, a skin depth approaching that of pure metals for selected wavelengths, and directionally confined waves similar to those found in optical fibres. These data provide design principles with which the electromagnetic behaviour of plasmonic metamaterials can be tailored using high aspect ratio nanostructures that are accessible via a variety of synthesis and assembly methods.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 4090 |
| Journal | Nature communications |
| Volume | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 17 2014 |
Funding
This research was supported by AFOSR MURI grant FA9550-11-1-0275 and by the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, under grant DOE DE-FG02-10ER16153. M.B.R. gratefully acknowledges support through the NDSEG graduate fellowship program. Computational time was provided by the Quest High-Performance Computing facility at Northwestern University, which is jointly supported by the Office of the Provost, the Office for Research and Northwestern University Information Technology. We thank Chad A. Mirkin for helpful discussions.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Physics and Astronomy