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Functional Metamaterials Based on Mesoscale Gold Sponges, Particulate Aggregates, and Their Composites with Dielectric Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Michael Cortie
Affiliation:
michael.cortie@uts.edu.au, University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Nanoscale Technology, PO Box 123, Broadway, Sydney 2007, N/A, Australia
Abbas Maaroof
Affiliation:
abbas.maaroof@uts.edu.au, University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Nanoscale Technology, Sydney, 2007, Australia
Geoff B Smith
Affiliation:
geoff.smith@uts.edu.au, University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Nanoscale Technology, Sydney, 2007, Australia
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Abstract

The optical properties of some nanoscale composites may deviate from that expected from a simple law of mixture of their individual components. In these cases the resulting structure can be considered to be a type of “metamaterial”. Here we explore some of the possibilities for nanoscale composite structures comprised of gold and VO2 – the latter being a functional material that undergoes a reversible insulator to metallic phase transition at 68°C. Two microstructures are examined: aggregates of gold nanoparticles surrounded by VO2 as the continuous phase, and its geometric inverse, mesoporous gold sponge with discontinuous VO2 inclusions. A composite, right-angled parallelepiped measuring 40×100×100 nm is taken as representative of the mixture, and calculations of the optical properties performed using the discrete dipole approximation code of Draine and Flatau. The VO2 matrix strongly attenuates the dipole-dipole plasmon resonance of the gold structure, and thermochromic switching of the remaining plasmon resonance occurs

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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