Transparent conductive oxide nanoparticle-based layers for laminar plasmonic devices

In this paper we investigate the application of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) in plasmonic devices, and especially for the functionalization of surface plasmon resonance and metamaterial sensors. We analyzed fabrication of laminar nanocomposites obtained by the deposition of indium oxide, tin oxide and indium tin oxide nanoparticles from solution to ultrathin freestanding structures. We investigated the spectral characteristics of ultrathin TCO layers and their plasmonic functionality. We used Drude model taking into account absorptive losses to determine complex relative dielectric permittivity and refractive index. Experimentally, we chose the approach to TCO nanoparticle synthesis from nonaqueous sol-gel utilizing organic solvents both as the reacting substances and the stabilizing agents and its drop coating onto ultrathin, freestanding substrates.