Micro-nanostructured plasmonic TiN layer produced using rapid thermal nitridation of a nanoimprinted TiO2 sol-gel

Abstract

Titanium nitride (TiN) is a very promising new plasmonic material to replace traditional plasmonic materials like gold and silver, especially thanks to its thermal and chemical stability. However, its chemical resistance and its hardness make TiN difficult to microstructure. An alternative approach is to micro-nanostructure a titanium dioxide (TiO2) coating and then to use a nitridation reaction to obtain a micro-nanostructured TiN coating. This is an easy, rapid and cost-effective structuring process. In this paper, we demonstrate that rapid thermal nitridation (RTN) can be combined with nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to rapidly micro-nanostructure a TiN layer. This innovative approach is applied to a micro-nanostructured TiN layer for plasmonic response in the near infrared range. Experimental and theoretical approaches are compared.