Self-Assembled Silver-Germanium Nanolayer Metamaterial with the Enhanced Nonlinear Response
Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces are important for many linear
and nonlinear photonic applications. Here, the possibility to control a nanostructured
layer spontaneously formed near an interface of a thin silver film is
shown, where the interplay between a grain boundary structure and surface
segregation of germanium atoms leads to encapsulation of the grains and,
as the result, formation of a composite metamaterial near the film surface.
This Ag/Ge composite exhibits strong localized surface plasmon resonances