Gradient-free temperature control over micrometric areas for thermoplasmonic applications in micro-and nano-devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel thermoplasmonic platform that enables temperature control over micrometric areas without gradients, using laser-induced heat diffusion in a gold nanoantenna array for applications in micro- and nano-devices.

Contribution

The work presents a new thermoplasmonic platform that achieves uniform temperature control over micrometric areas via heat diffusion, avoiding the need for local resistive heaters.

Findings

Heat diffuses over silicon to control temperature at desired distances.

The platform enables temperature control without gradients.

Potential applications include tuning 2D crystal gaps and phase change transitions.

Abstract

Control over surface temperature is of paramount importance in optoelectronics, photocatalysis and biosensing applications, among others. Thermoplasmonic approaches have demonstrated unrivalled performance for controlling surface temperature, in terms of spatial resolution and thermal amplitude. Most efforts have been done on optimizing the temperature gradient and developing nanoscale temperature patterns. Alternatively, a temperature gradient-free thermoplasmonic surface will enable further functionalities. For example, a constant temperature area of a few square microns can be employed to tune the gap of a 2D crystal or to control transition in a phase change material without the need of local resistive heaters and external electronics. In this work, we present a thermoplasmonic platform conceived for this purpose. It consists of an array of gold nanoantennas on a 'silicon on insulator' substrate, where the heat is generated by a laser beam focused on the array, diffused over the whole silicon layer and confined in the vertical direction by the insulator underneath. As an advantage to previous approaches, heat diffusion allows the temperature control at a desired distance from the excitation spot, thus showing the proposed platform as a candidate for hosting and controlling the temperature during the characterization of light-sensitive materials.