EAGER: Enhancing plasmonic mode coupling in metal insulator metal structures

About This Grant

The project aims to investigate the metal-insulator interfaces in thin film Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures for their applications in the fields of nanophotonics, biosensing, and imaging. The proposed research will be useful for the broader realms of thin film and semiconductor research. The outcome of the work will be directly applied to mass manufacturing of reliable, high-performance detectors and sensors for imaging and energy conversion applications. Although MIM-based sensors, also known as plasmonic sensors, have promising applications, their realization to real-world devices is delayed due to a lack of understanding of the fundamental properties of the MIM stack. The objective of this research is to carry out systematic studies on the properties of the metal oxide and metal-organic materials used as insulators in MIM junctions. The research described in this proposal is on the edge of interdisciplinary involving materials science, nanofabrication, and Physics. It involves almost every stage in the development of a micro-device, i.e., design, fabrication, integration, characterization testing, and optimization. The project will strive to hire a graduate student, preferably from underrepresented groups, who will be trained to learn, practice and develop boundary-spanning skills. Such skills are highly recommended for the nanotechnology workforce in the industry and academia. The training and mentoring of the graduate student on this interdisciplinary project will enable them to successfully transition to the diverse STEM workforce. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and have interest to diverse audiences in the field of nanotechnology, materials science, electrical engineering, and physics. The proposed research is designed to gain a broader understanding of insulating materials, which are currently being explored to gain desired MIM diode and MIM -plasmonic structure characteristics. In the past, metal–insulator interfaces have been studied; however, with the advent of the newer concept of MIIM (double insulating layer), to attain better response of the diode, there is a need to study insulator-insulator interfaces. In this proposed work, we will conduct extensive modeling and simulation, and experimental work along with detailed materials characterization using state of art techniques such as Ellipsometry, Atomic Force Microscope, Transmission Electron Microscope, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy, Xray-Photoelectron Spectroscopy, X-diffractometry to understand the effect of bandgap, point defect, and oxygen transport in the interfacial layers. The new knowledge generated from these experiments will be used in mass manufacturing of high-performance sensors and detectors. The proposal aims to compare the device fabrication techniques such as vacuum-based sputtering, atomic player deposition, and ambient atmospheric pressure plasma deposition for improved fabrication. The knowledge developed from this work will be successfully disseminated in improving the quality of the MIM/ MIIM stack, thereby improving the efficiency of plasmonic sensors. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.