Electron-beam induced diamond-like-carbon passivation of plasmonic devices

Abstract

Engineered materials with feature sizes on the order of a few nanometres offer the potential for producing metamaterials with properties which may differ significantly from their bulk counterpart. Here we describe the production of plasmonic colour filters using periodic arrays of nanoscale cross shaped apertures fabricated in optically opaque silver films. Due to its relatively low loss in the visible and near infrared range, silver is a popular choice for plasmonic devices, however it is also unstable in wet or even ambient conditions. Here we show that ultra-thin layers of Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) can be used to prevent degradation due to oxidative stress, ageing and corrosion. We demonstrate that DLC effectively protects the sub-micron features which make up the plasmonic colour filter under both atmospheric conditions and accelerated aging using iodine gas. Through a systematic study we confirm that the nanometre thick DLC layers have no effect on the device functionality or performance.