No Arabic abstract
Strontium molybdate (SrMoO3) thin films are shown to exhibit plasmonic behaviour with a zero crossover wavelength of the real part of the dielectric permittivity tunable between 600 and 950 nm (2.05 eV and 1.31 eV). The films are grown epitaxially on strontium titanate (SrTiO3), magnesium oxide (MgO), and lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO3) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. SrMoO3 is shown to have optical losses lower than those of gold at the point at which the real part of the dielectric permittivity is equal to -2, while possessing low electrical resistivity of 100E-6 Ohm cm at room temperature. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements reveal that SrMoO3 shows plasmonic behaviour, moreover we demonstrate that the epsilon near zero (ENZ) wavelength is tunable by engineering the residual strain in the films. The relatively broadband ENZ behaviour observed in SrMoO3 demonstrates its potential suitability for transformation optics along with plasmonic applications in the visible to near infrared spectral range.
In the search for alternative plasmonic materials SrMoO3 has recently been identified as possessing a number of desirable optical properties. Owing to the requirement for many plasmonic devices to operate at elevated temperatures however, it is essential to characterize the degradation of these properties upon heating. Here, SrMoO3 thin films are annealed in air at temperatures ranging from 75 - 500{deg} C. Characterizations by AFM, XRD, and spectroscopic ellipsometry after each anneal identify a loss of metallic behaviour after annealing at 500{deg} C, together with the underlying mechanism. Moreover, it is shown that by annealing the films in nitrogen following deposition, an additional crystalline phase of SrMoO4 is induced at the film surface, which suppresses oxidation at elevated temperatures.
Stimulated surface- and edge-emission were investigated for ZnO thin films grown epitaxially by pulsed laser deposition. The lasing threshold was 0.32 MW/cm2 for surface pumping and 0.5 MW/cm2 for edge pumping, which is significantly lower than thresholds observed previously. A modified variable stripe length method was used to measure the gain, which was 1369 cm-1 for N-band emission. Losses were measured using the shifting excitation spot method and values of 6.2 cm-1 and 6.3 cm-1 were found for the N-band and P-band, respectively. The measured gain and loss were the highest and lowest (respectively) ever reported for ZnO films.
Oriented Strontium Ferrite films with the c axis orientation were deposited with varying oxygen partial pressure on Al2O3(0001) substrate using PLD technique. The angle dependent magnetic hysteresis, remanent coercivity and temperature dependent coercivity had been employed to understand the magnetization reversal of these films. It was found that the Strontium Ferrite thin film grown at lower (higher) oxygen partial pressure shows Stoner-Wohlfarth type (Kondorsky like) reversal. The relative importance of pinning and nucleation processes during magnetization reversal is used to explain the type of the magnetization reversal with different oxygen partial pressure during growth.
The Landau theory of phase transitions of Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 thin film under external electric field applied in the planar geometry is developed. The interfacial van-der-Waals field Ez=1.1x10^8 V/m oriented normal to the film-substrate interface was introduced in to the model calculation to explain experimentally observed behavior of the polarization as a function of planar electric field. The Ez - misfit strain phase diagram of the film is constructed and discussed.
Quasi-two-dimensional (2D) films of layered metal-chalcogenides have attractive optoelectronic properties. However, photonic applications of thin films may be limited owing to weak light absorption and surface effects leading to reduced quantum yield. Integration of 2D films in optical microcavities will permit these limitations to be overcome owing to modified light coupling with the films. Here we present tunable microcavities with embedded monolayer MoS2 or few monolayer GaSe films. We observe significant modification of spectral and temporal properties of photoluminescence (PL): PL is emitted in spectrally narrow and wavelength-tunable cavity modes with quality factors up to 7400; PL life-time shortening by a factor of 10 is achieved, a consequence of Purcell enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate. This work has potential to pave the way to microcavity-enhanced light-emitting devices based on layered 2D materials and their heterostructures, and also opens possibilities for cavity QED in a new material system of van der Waals crystals.