Modulation of the plasmonic characteristics of Ti-Zr ternary nitride thin films by assisting ions

Plasmonic Ti-Zr ternary nitride thin films, with ZrN_x and TiN_x thin films as controls, were prepared with bombardment of assisting ions. The effects of the energy (E_a) and current density (J_a) of assisting ions, on the structure and plasmonic properties of the Ti-Zr ternary nitride thin films were investigated. All the films are B1-structured with a mixed orientation of (1 1 1) and (2 2 0). Higher E_a leads to higher nitrogen content and reduced the titanium content. Higher J_a or E_a can reduce the plasmonic resonance frequency and reduce the energy loss. Moreover, the plasmonic quality factors of the films can also be modulated by E_a and J_a in a wide range. It is possible that the change of the conductivity mainly underly the Ion beam modification of the plasmonic characteristics. The results of this work give an effective method to tune the plasmonic performances of ternary nitride films in visible and near infrared region.