Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 96: Plasmonics and nanooptics: Fabrication, characterization and applications
O 96.1: Talk
Friday, March 13, 2026, 09:30–09:45, HSZ/0403
How to fix silver for plasmonics ? — •Jonas Graf1, Björn Ewald1, Leo Siebigs1, Cheng Zhang2, Achyut Tiwari3, Max Rödel1, Sebastian Hammer1, Vladimir Stepanenko4, Frank Würthner4, Bruno Gompf3, Bert Hecht2, and Jens Pflaum1 — 1Experimental Physics 6, Univ. Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg — 2Experimental Physics 5, Univ. Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg — 31. Physikalisches Institut, Univ. Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart — 4Institute for Organic Chemistry, Univ. Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg
Silver (Ag) is an ideal plasmonic material for applications in the visible regime, but its use is hindered by poor chemical stability and structural quality of thermally evaporated thin films and nanostructures. Here, we present a simple approach to overcome these limitations by alloying Ag thin films with small amounts of gold (Au) through thermal co-evaporation. We analyzed Ag100−xAux thin films with Au contents ranging from 5 to 20 at.% with respect to their surface and bulk crystal quality, optical properties and chemical stability. Remarkably, already Ag95Au5 thin films exhibit a drastically enhanced chemical stability and excellent plasmonic properties outperforming pure Ag. This is related to the high film quality achieved without metallic wetting layers, epitaxial substrates or template stripping. As a proof of concept, we fabricate Ag95Au5 plasmonic nanoantennas demonstrating excellent long-term durability over one month under ambient conditions. Our approach thus demonstrates a simple and effective strategy to overcome the general limitations of Ag in plasmonic applications. B. Ewald et al., ACS Photonics 2025, DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01659
Keywords: plasmonic nanoantenna; nanophotonics; physical vapor deposition; thermal evaporation; silver-gold alloy