Localized overheating on aluminum metafilms mediated by surface plasmons

Abstract

We studied the increase in temperature of systems formed by thin aluminum films deposited on texturized substrates which we denominated aluminum metafilms. By varying the geometric parameters of the metafilms, surface plasmons in the wavelength range of ~420-770 nm were excited. Temperature measurements as a function of the intensity of incident radiation in the interval from 0-to 4X10^18 (photons/s cm^2) using wavelengths of 445, 532 and 650 nm, showed temperature increases up to ~200 K, these attributed to metafilm morphology and hot electrons result of the non-radiative decay of the surface plasmons. Also increases up to 2.3X10^(-4) Ohm cm  in electrical resistivity were recorded when the metafilms were radiated for times of ~1 s; when the exposure times were greater than ~4 s, irreversibly changes in the morphology of the samples were observed.