Imaging of Antiferroelectric Dark Modes in an Inverted Plasmonic Lattice.

Rodríguez-Álvarez, Javier; Labarta, Amílcar; Idrobo, Juan Carlos; Dell'Anna, Rossana; Cian, Alessandro; Giubertoni, Damiano; Borrisé, Xavier; Guerrero, Albert et al. · ACS Nano · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Plasmonic lattice nanostructures are of technological interest because of their capacity to manipulate light below the diffraction limit. Here, we present a detailed study of dark and bright modes in the visible and near-infrared energy regime of an inverted plasmonic honeycomb lattice by a combination of Au<sup>+</sup> focused ion beam lithography with nanometric resolution, optical and electron spectroscopy, and finite-difference time-domain simulations. The lattice consists of slits carved in a gold thin film, exhibiting hotspots and a set of bright and dark modes. We proposed that some of the dark modes detected by electron energy-loss spectroscopy are caused by antiferroelectric arrangements of the slit polarizations with two times the size of the hexagonal unit cell. The plasmonic resonances take place within the 0.5-2 eV energy range, indicating that they could be suitable for a synergistic coupling with excitons in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides materials or for designing nanoscale sensing platforms based on near-field enhancement over a metallic surface.