Excitation of Strong Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances in Highly Metallic Titanium Nitride Nano-Antennas for Stable Performance at Elevated Temperatures

New opportunities for plasmonic applications at high temperatures have stimulated interest in refractory plasmonic materials that show greater stability at elevated temperatures than the more commonly used silver and gold (Au). Titanium nitride (TiN) has been identified as a promising refractory material, with deposition of TiN thin films through techniques ranging from plasma-enhanced atomic laser deposition to sputter deposition to pulsed laser deposition, on a variety of substrates, including MgO, polymer, SiO2, and sapphire. A variety of plasmonic devices have been evaluated, including gratings, nanorods, and nanodisks. An implicit metric for TiN behavior has been the comparison of its plasmonic performance to that of Au, in particular at various elevated temperatures. This paper carries out a one-to-one comparison of bowtie nanoantennas formed of TiN and Au (on both Si and MgO substrates), examining the far-field characteristics, related to the measured near-field resonances. In both cases, the optical constants of the TiN films were used to simulate the expected plasmonic responses and enjoyed excellent agreement with the experimental measurements. Furthermore, we examined the consistency of the plasmonic response and the morphological changes in the TiN and Au nanoantennas at different temperatures up to 800 °C in the atmosphere. This comparison of the measured plasmonic response from nanoscale resonances to the far-field response allows for anomalies or imperfections that may be introduced by the nanofabrication processes and provides a more accurate comparison of TiN plasmonic behavior relative to the Au standard.