Fabrication And Optical Characterization Of Waveguided Couple Metallic Photonic Crystal

Metallic photonic crystals (MPC) refers to as periodic arrangements of metallic nanoparticles, nanowires, or nanoholes, which are based on strong particle plasmon resonance. Waveguided metallic photonic crystals are studied in this thesis, which show strong coupling between the waveguide mode and the plasmon resonance and can be characterized by optical extinction spectroscopy. This kind of nanostructures is important for the applications in biosensors, optical switch and optoelectronic devices.The fabrication methods of MPC include electron beam lithography with subsequent evaporation and lift-off, interference lithography with dry-etching technology etc. However, small dynamic range of the fabrication area (<200X200μm2), complex technology, and high costs are the obvious disadvantages of those methods. In the research work in this thesis, the MPCs are fabricated by solution-processible method combining interference lithography, showing the advantages of large-area fabrication, simplicity, low cost, and mass fabrication.In the first part of this thesis, the waveguided grating structures that are fabricated using interference lithography are characterized using microscopy and optical spectroscopy. The angle resolved tuning properties of the resonant waveguide mode and its dependence on the grating parameters and on the polarization properties of the incident light are investigated. In particular, the influence of the grating period and waveguide thickness on the tuning rate of the resonance waveguide mode is characterized. In the second part, MPCs are fabricated by filling the grating grooves with gold nanoparticles. Finally, fabrication and characterization of MPCs using ZnO to construct the waveguide are demonstrated. The optical extinction spectroscopy show that double waveguide mode is excited when the thickness of the ZnO layer is about 300 nm, while triple mode have been observed when the waveguide layer is as thick as 500 nm. This is explained theoretically in detail and is simulated numerically for the angle-resolved tuning properties. The simulation results agree well with the experimental observations. The related studies are important for further applications of the waveguided grating device in filters and sensors.