Abstract
As a result of recent developments in nanofabrication techniques, the dimensions of metallic building blocks of plasmonic devices continue to shrink down to nanometer range thicknesses. The optical and electronic properties of ultra-thin plasmonic films are expected to have a strong dependence on the film thickness, composition, and strain, as well as an increased sensitivity to external optical and electrical perturbation. This unique tailorability establishes ultra-thin plasmonic films as an attractive material for the design of tailorable and dynamically switchable metasurfaces. Due to their epitaxial growth on lattice matched substrates, TiN is an ideal material to investigate the tailorable properties of plasmonic films with thicknesses of just a few monolayers. MXenes, a class of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials formed of transition metal carbides and carbon nitrides, are yet another promising material platform for tailorable plasmonic metamaterials. MXenes have been widely explored in a variety of applications, such as electromagnetic shielding and SERS. However, investigations of MXenes in the context of nanophotonics and plasmonics have been limited leading to this current exploration of MXenes as building blocks for plasmonic and metamaterial devices. In this study, we investigate these two emerging classes of materials, MXenes and ultra-thin transition metal nitrides, as potential material platforms for tailorable plasmonic metamaterials. We report on the strain and oxidation dependent optical properties of ultrathin TiN. Applications of MXenes as a broadband plasmonic metamaterial absorber and a random laser device are also discussed.
Published Version
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