Optical properties of Au/MnSb/Au magneto-plasmonic nanostructure for self temperature control device

Localized surface plasmon resonance, LSPR, has been applied to a variety of recent optical applications, including surface enhanced Raman scattering solar cells, ultrasensitive bio/chemical sensors, and light-emitting diodes. In general, LSPR is well-known as the collective conduction electron oscillation that occurs especially in noble metal nanostructures excited by light at the resonance condition. Focusing on conduction electron, effect of spin-dependent scattering on the optical properties for ferro-magnetic thin films was observed at around Curie temperature (T
_C
). If conduction electrons are scattered by atomic spin in a plasmonic nanostructure by combining both phenomena, realization of a new concept of self temperature control device can be expected; LSPR becomes activated under T
_C
temperature region and generate resonance loss as thermal energy, whereas unexcited over T
_C
temperature region. As a preliminary research, in this study, a Mn
₅₀
Sb
₅₀
(hereafter simply described as MnSb) film and a Au film were selected as ferromagnetic and plasmon enhanced materials, effect of spin-dependent scattering on the optical properties were studied by evaluating the transmittance spectra of Au/MnSb/Au stacked nanostructure.