Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Physics

Supervisor

Dr. Mahi R. Singh

2nd Supervisor

Dr. Jeffrey Carson

Joint Supervisor

Abstract

Plasmonics is the study of light-matter interaction. The interaction of incident light (photons) with surface plasmons present in metamaterials results in unique optical properties. Nanohole arrays are a metamaterial consisting of an array of sub-wavelength holes perforated in an optically thin metallic film which resides upon a dielectric material. The interaction of light with the surface plasmons present in the nanohole array leads to extraordinary optical transmission which produces resonance peaks with a higher intensity than the incident light. By changing the physical parameters of the nanohole array, such as hole size and periodicity, the resonance peaks can be tuned to different locations. This is used in applications such as surface plasmon resonance sensing and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy studied in this thesis.

Previous derivations of transmission and absorption coefficients show that the transmission is only dependent on the periodicity of the nanohole array. However, numerous simulated and experimental results have shown that the periodicity and hole size have an effect on the transmission and absorption of nanohole arrays.

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