Research by Chris Klenke

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Dataset for SERS Plasmonic Array: Width, Spacing, and Thin Film Oxide thickness optimization

Student: Chris Klenke

Undergrad. School / Major: Missouri State / Physics

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joseph Herzog

Research Area(s):

Modeling and Simulation

Photonics

Background/Relevance
  • Previously, Dr. Herzog and his research group have published several works regarding plasmonics in Au nanostructures.
  • Other researchers have published computational work that should yield similar results but have gotten discrepancies.

Innovation
  • Publish our data and methods in the open-access MDPI Journal DATA to allow other researchers to verify and validate our work.
  • Make our data available in a universal format that can be tested with computer modeling software other than COMSOL, such as MATLAB.

Methods
  • Computationally model an array of Au nanowires on an SiO2 substrate with various parameters.
  • Perform with COMSOL, a physics modelling software using finite element method (FEM).
  • Vary the widths of the nanowires (w), the spacings between the wires (s), and the depths of the SiO2 (tSiO2) and analyze plasmonic enhancement for each variation
  • Export data into plaintext text files to make accessible to researchers without COMSOL.

Key Results
  • Differing values of s and w at the nanoscale provide varying degrees of plasmonic enhancement.
  • There exist parameter combinations that provide strong plasmonic enhancement at values previously unstudied.
  • Periodic values of tSiO2 provide periodic amounts of plasmonic enhancement, apparently irrelevant to the rest of the structure.

Conclusions
  • Stronger than expected plasmonic interference occurs in nanowires spaced greater than 100 nm apart, an area of plasmonics that has not been investigated much.
  • This can possibly be utilized for creating substrates for surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).
  • The data can be evaluated in other modelling softwares to allow for accurate validation by fellow computational modelling researchers.

Acknowledgements to Dr. Joseph Herzog, Dr. Keith Roper, Zach Brawley, Ahmad Darweesh, Stephen Bauman, and Faezia Tork Ladani for their guidance and help. Research Funded by National Science Foundation REU Grant EEC 1757979 Summer 2018