IPMAGNA

Imaging the Plasmonic Activity of Magnetic Nanostructures

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The proposed project concerns the study of magnetoplasmonic systems, that is nanostructures exhibiting both magneto-optic (MO) properties and surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). Particularly, localized SPRs appearing in magnetic nanostructures will be studied using local probe microscopy techniques.

The typical magnetoplasmonic nanostructure is a Noble-Metal/Ferromagnetic-Metal/Noble-Metal trilayer. They can be fabricated either as continuous thin films that are subsequently patterned using lithography and etching, or by lithography, evaporation and lift-off. Nanostructure arrays will be fabricated in various compositions, shapes, separations and symmetries (in particular, colloidal lithography will be used to obtain disordered arrays, whereas e-beam lithography will be used to prepare ordered ones). First, their collective optical and MO behavior will be characterized using far-field measurements. Afterwards, the local electromagnetic near-field distribution at single objects will be imaged using Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (SNOM). The local measurements will be correlated to the optical and MO collective measurements. Both optical-fiber SNOM and apertureles SNOM (aSNOM) measurements will be performed. Metal-coated Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) tips will be used for aSNOM. The interest is in performing aSNOM using ferromagnetic-metal-coated AFM tips, thus allowing for Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) measurements to be performed simultaneously with SNOM. The illuminated light will excite surface plasmons, and the magnetic component of their electromagnetic field distribution will be imaged using MFM.

Magnetoplasmonics research has been pioneered at the host group, and the proposed project is a natural continuation of the so far host activity. Magnetoplasmonics allow for the development of active plasmonic devices (their properties can be tuned with a magnetic field), with applications in photonic nanocircuits and advanced biosensors.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Scientists developed novel techniques to detect synchronised waves of electron charge density in nano-structured materials. The technology should speed up the development of new magneto-optical devices.