Optical Responses of Localized and Extended Modes in a Mesoporous Layer on Plasmonic Array to Isopropanol Vapor.

Mesoporous silica features open and accessible pores that can intake substances from the outside. The combination of mesoporous silica with plasmonic nanostructures represents an interesting platform for an optical sensor based on the dependence of plasmonic modes on the refractive index of the medium in which metallic nanoparticles are embedded. However, so far only a limited number of plasmonic nanostructures are combined with mesoporous silica, including random dispersion of metallic nanoparticles and flat metallic thin films.

Demonstration of temperature-plateau superheated liquid by photothermal conversion of plasmonic titanium nitride nanostructures.

A liquid can be heated up above its boiling point, known as superheating. In this metastable state, the liquid temperature keeps increasing as the liquid is being heated. In contrast, we experimentally demonstrate that the temperature of superheated water can be kept constant even at elevated heating power.

Plasmonic arrays of titanium nitride nanoparticles fabricated from epitaxial thin films.

We have fabricated two-dimensional periodic arrays of titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles from epitaxial thin films. The thin films of TiN, deposited on sapphire and single crystalline magnesium oxide substrates by a pulsed laser deposition, are metallic and show reasonably small optical loss in the visible and near infrared regions. The thin films prepared were structured to the arrays of nanoparticles with the pitch of 400 nm by the combination of nanoimprint lithography and reactive ion etching.