The project

Amorphous conductors are a new class of plasmonic materials that can substitute noble metals to obtain low cost, abundant, sustainable materials. Exploitation of the disruption of long-range structural order, improve the mechanical stability and reduce the grain boundaries contribution and film roughness maintaining CMOS compatibility.

This project aims at:

1. realizing the first example of plasmonic amorphous conductor films, based on selected transparent conducting oxides and transition metal alloys;

2. determining the effect of disorder on their electronic and plasmonic properties;

3. realizing the first prototypical plasmonic devices by using amorphous conductors.

AMONIX will use physical vapor deposition techniques to grow transparent conducting oxides and transition metal alloys films, while combining first-principle ab initio methods and optical, structural and electronic characterization we will unravel the still unknown plasmonic properties of this class of materials. The tuning of the response of these films is achieved through the control of order, composition and doping, and will improve the knowledge of their electronic and optical properties.

We will exploit the amorphous films to develop proof-of-concept plasmonic devices to test the efficiency of the investigated materials for gas sensing operating in the near-IR, by detecting greenhouse gasses vibrational overtones.

The duration of the project is from September 2023 to September 2025.

Partners

Cnr Nano

The experimental labs are equipped with a magnetron sputtering system and apparatus for the structural, morphological, electrical characterization of films; electronic spectroscopies like XPS/UPS are available onsite or performed at synchrotron radiation facilities; electron beam lithography to fabricate test devices.

The theoretical group will be in charge of the microscopic characterization of the structural, electronic and plasmonic properties of the amorphous conductors and the modeling of the sensor devices.

Dipartimenti di Fisica, Università Roma La Sapienza

The labs are equipped with FTIR interferometers, nano-IR spectroscopy and nano-imaging setups to investigate the optical and IR responses of films and fabricated resonant nanostructures. The molecular sensing experiments will be carried out with the aim of benchmarking the enhancement obtained with our device with respect to standard LSPR and previous mid-IR sensing platforms.

People

Cnr Nano: Stefania Benedetti (PI), Alessandro di Bona, Arrigo Calzolari, and  Alessandra Catellani.

Dip. Fisica- UniRoma La Sapienza: Leonetta Baldassarre, Michele Ortolani, and Fritz Beckmann.

Organization

WP1: MATERIALS

WP1 is dedicated to the growth, deposition and characterization of the amorphous materials. It involves all partners, including theoretical modelling, amorphous film growth and plasmonic characterization.

WP2: SENSING

WP2 deals with the modeling and the fabrication of the sensing devices, as a first proof of concept for the exploitation of amorphous conductors in plasmonic applications.

WP3: MANAGEMENT AND DISSEMINATION

WP3 will exploit the active collaboration of all partners for the management and dissemination of the activities and results of the project.

News and events

– December 2023: Opened a call for Postdoc position at Cnr Nano for the experimental activities of the project.

– 14 November 2023: Kick-off meeting of the AMONIX Project. Partners of the project meets in Modena at Cnr Nano to present and discuss the first activities of the project.

-28 September 2023: AMONIX starts!

Contacts

stefania.benedetti@nano.cnr.it
arrigo.calzolari@nano.cnr.it
leonetta.baldassarre@uniroma1.it

Address

Cnr Nano
via Campi 213A
I-41125 Modena