Investigation of the optical properties of Al-doped Ag Layers

Silver (Ag) is theoretically the best material to be used in the plasmonics and related areas. [1] However, its well known chemical instability makes it hardly useful for plasmonic devices. [2] The research by Zhang et al. [3] , [4] shows that by mixing Ag with small quantities of Al while co-sputtering, it becomes thermally stable, and one can obtain very smooth layers. Their research, and the subsequent articles that followed, concentrated on using the mentioned techniques in various plasmonic devices and applications. However, to our knowledge, there was no investigation of the layer’s optical properties and their variation.