Plasmonic Films Can Easily Be Better: Rules and Recipes

High-quality materials are critical
for advances in plasmonics,
especially as researchers now investigate quantum effects at the limit
of single surface plasmons or exploit ultraviolet- or CMOS-compatible
metals such as aluminum or copper. Unfortunately, due to inexperience
with deposition methods, many plasmonics researchers deposit metals
under the wrong conditions, severely limiting performance unnecessarily.
This is then compounded as others follow their published procedures.
In this perspective, we describe simple rules collected from the surface-science
literature that allow high-quality plasmonic films of aluminum, copper,
gold, and silver to be easily deposited with commonly available equipment
(a thermal evaporator). Recipes are also provided so that films with
optimal optical properties can be routinely obtained.

高品质材料对于等离子体学领域的发展至关重要，尤其是在研究者们目前正探讨单表面等离子体极限下的量子效应，或利用紫外光或CMOS兼容金属如铝或铜之际。遗憾的是，由于对沉积方法的不熟悉，众多等离子体学研究者在错误条件下沉积金属，从而无谓地限制了其性能。这一状况进一步加剧，因为其他人盲目遵循其发表的流程。在此视角下，我们概述了从表面科学文献中搜集的简单规则，这些规则使得铝、铜、金和银等高品质等离子体薄膜能够利用常见设备（如热蒸发器）轻松沉积。此外，还提供了配方，以确保能够常规地获得具有最佳光学特性的薄膜。