Plasmonics, the phenomena resulting from light interactions with nanoscale structures, is an active field for nanoscale manipulation of light. By varying the plasmonic metal, size, and shape, nanostructures can be tuned to interact with a broad spectral range of light. Commonly used plasmonic materials are the noble metals gold and silver. Aluminum is a cost-effective alternative to the noble metals. However, aluminum does present a challenge as it readily forms a native oxide layer, which can both protect structures and complicate fabrication. Here we fabricate aluminum nanocrescents using a simple, scalable technique to investigate the utility of the structures as substrates for a variety of surface enhanced spectroscopies. We show that aluminum, an abundant material, performs at the same level as gold and silver at IR wavelengths, a region in which aluminum is not typically used. Due to its high tunability, aluminum also shows great promise in other applications such as refractive index sensing for biological macromolecules, surface enhanced spectroscopies, photocatalysis, and photovoltaics.

Fabrication and optical properties of aluminum nanocrescents

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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