Nanoparticle plasmonics: going practical with transition metal nitrides

Promising designs and experimental realizations of devices with unusual properties in the field of plasmonics have attracted a great deal of attention over the past few decades. However, the high expectations for realized technology products have not been met so far. The main complication is the absence of robust, high performance, low cost plasmonic materials that can be easily integrated into already established technologies such as microelectronics. This review provides a brief discussion on alternative plasmonic materials for localized surface plasmon applications and focuses on transition metal nitrides, in particular, titanium nitride, which has recently been shown to be a high performance refractory plasmonic material that could replace and even outperform gold in various plasmonic devices. As a material compatible with biological environments and the semiconductor industry, titanium nitride possesses superior properties compared to noble metals such as high temperature durability, chemical stability, corrosion resistance, low cost and mechanical hardness.