Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 24: Plasmonics and Nanooptics: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications

O 24.11: Poster

Monday, March 7, 2016, 18:15–20:30, Poster E

Large-area olasmonic devices for hydrogen sensing — •Ramon Walter, Nikolai Strohfeldt, Florian Sterl, Jonas Schwenzer, and Harald Giessen — 4th Phsics Institute and Research Center SCOPE, University of Stuttgart

Hydrogen has the potential to be a source of clean energy when used in fuel cells. However, it also poses potential hazards. A sensitive and reliable sensor can reduce this risk. Plasmonics can serve as an ideal building block for such sensor devices. By changing the optical properties of such a device under hydrogen exposure, the plasmon resonance shifts depending to the amount of hydrogen.

An ideal plasmonic material is gold. Due to the fact that gold nanoparticles are not reacting to hydrogen, it is necessary to cover these particles with a dielectric film consisting of hydrogen sensitive and transparent films, like Titaniumdioxide and zinc oxide.

We present the feasibility of such devices, using TiO2. By using a combination of directional argon-ion-beam-etching and colloidal lithography we produce gold nanodisks on a large-area scale. By spincoating we deposit a thin film of TiO2 on top and finally add a thin palladium catalyst layer. The resulting device shows a well modulated resonance with low transmission. By changing from pure nitrogen atmosphere to a hydrogen content of 5 %, the resonance shifts to longer wavelengths and the transmission increases.

The sensitivity of our design can optimized by tailoring thickness of the dielectric layer, leading to industrially viably hydrogen sensor coatings for a multitude of practical applications.