Holographic fabrication of hole arrays in AZO for study of surface plasmon resonances

Transparent conducting oxides are part of a robust material class that is capable of supporting near-IR surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) which are strongly dependent on size, structure, and doping of the material. This study presents the implementation of holographic lithography to structure large area square lattice cylindrical hole arrays on the transparent conducting oxide thin film, aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO). For fabricated structures on a glass substrate, SPR are indirectly measured by FTIR transmission and verified with electromagnetic simulations using a finite difference time domain method. Furthermore, it is shown that the SPR excited are standing wave resonances in the (1,1) direction of the lattice array located at the interface of the patterned AZO and glass substrate. This research extends the robust CMOS compatible fabrication techniques of holographic lithography into tunable conductive materials, and contributes to the core technology of future integrated photonics.