Deposition pressure-induced microstructure control and plasmonic property tuning in hybrid ZnO–Ag<sub>x</sub>Au<sub>1−x</sub> thin films
Robynne L. Paldi, Xing Sun, Xin Li Phuah, Juanjuan Lu, X. Zhang, Aleem Siddiqui, Haiyan Wang
Abstract
systematic tuning of the oxygen background pressure during deposition. The pressure effects on morphology and optical properties have been investigated and found to be critical to the overall properties of the hybrid films. Specifically, low background pressure results in the vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) form while the high-pressure results in more lateral growth of the nanoalloys. Strong surface plasmon resonance was observed in the UV-vis region and a hyperbolic dielectric function was achieved due to the anisotropic morphology. The oxide-nanoalloy hybrid material grown in this work presents a highly effective approach for tuning the binary nanoalloy morphology and properties through systematic parametric changes, important for their potential applications in integrated photonics and plasmonics such as sensors, energy harvesting devices, and beyond.