Palladium-based plasmonic perfect absorber in the visible wavelength range and its application to hydrogen sensing.

Tittl, Andreas; Mai, Patrick; Taubert, Richard; Dregely, Daniel; Liu, Na; Giessen, Harald · Nano Lett · 2011

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report on the experimental realization of a palladium-based plasmonic perfect absorber at visible wavelengths and its application to hydrogen sensing. Our design exhibits a reflectance <0.5% and zero transmittance at 650 nm and the operation wavelength of the absorber can be tuned by varying its structural parameters. Exposure to hydrogen gas causes a rapid and reversible increase in reflectance on a time scale of seconds. This pronounced response introduces a novel optical hydrogen detection scheme with very high values of the relative intensity response.