Energy and Angle Resolved Reflectivity of Plasmonic Nanostructures

It has been apparent for some time that desirable plasmonic properties can be produced by combining certain component materials into a variety of nanometer-scale structures. A logical next step would be to develop the ability to actively tune the plasmonic properties of a particular nanostructured material. Exploration of such active tuning methods is at the forefront of plasmonics research. One such technique may be to make use of the magnetization within the material, controlled via external field, in order to alter the conditions necessary for plasmon excitation. Presented here are preliminary measurements of reflectivity for one such nanostructured material-a Co film patterned with a hexagonal lattice of holes. Such reflectivity measurements are useful in determining the optimal conditions for plasmon excitation in a sample, but are often limited to only a few wavelengths of incident light. Use of a white light source and spectrometer allows for resolution in both incidence angle and incident energy. Different polarizations of light as well as different incidence directions relative to the hole lattice are considered.