Open AccessCorrelation between electrical direct current resistivity and plasmonic properties of CMOS compatible titanium nitride thin films
Author(s) -
Sviatlana Viarbitskaya,
Juan Arocas,
Olivier Heintz,
Gérard Colas-des-Francs,
Dmitrii Rusakov,
Ueli Koch,
Juerg Leuthold,
Laurent Markey,
Alain Dereux,
Jean-Claude Weeber
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.009813
Subject(s) - materials science , electrical resistivity and conductivity , tin , plasmon , titanium nitride , drude model , surface plasmon , boron nitride , surface plasmon polariton , optoelectronics , zirconium nitride , optics , condensed matter physics , nitride , nanotechnology , layer (electronics) , physics , metallurgy , quantum mechanics
Damping distances of surface plasmon polariton modes sustained by different thin titanium nitride (TiN) films are measured at the telecom wavelength of 1.55 μm. The damping distances are correlated to the electrical direct current resistivity of the films sustaining the surface plasmon modes. It is found that TiN/Air surface plasmon mode damping distances drop non-linearly from 40 to 16μm as the resistivity of the layers increases from 28 to 130μΩ.cm, respectively. The relevance of the direct current (dc) electrical resistivity for the characterization of TiN plasmonic properties is investigated in the framework of the Drude model, on the basis of parameters extracted from spectroscopic ellipsometry experiments. By probing a parametric space of realistic values for parameters of the Drude model, we obtain a nearly univocal dependence of the surface plasmon damping distance on the dc resistivity demonstrating the relevance of dc resistivity for the evaluation of the plasmonic performances of TiN at telecom frequencies. Finally, we show that better plasmonic performances are obtained for TiN films featuring a low content of oxygen. For low oxygen content and corresponding low resistivity, we attribute the increase of the surface plasmon damping distances to a lower confinement of the plasmon field into the metal and not to a decrease of the absorption of TiN.