Beyond Noble Metals: High Q-Factor Aluminum Nanoplasmonics

Aluminum, with its distinctively favorable dielectric characteristics down to deep ultraviolet (UV) regime, has recently emerged as a broad-band and low-cost alternative to noble metals. However, low Q-factor resonances (Q ∼ 2–4), offered by Al nanostructures, pose a fundamental bottleneck for many practical applications. Here, we show that it is possible to realize Al-nanoantenna with remarkably large extinction cross sections and strong resonance characteristics surpassing those of their noble metal counterparts. By quenching radiation damping through far-field coherent dipolar interactions, we experimentally demonstrate exceptionally narrow line width (∼15 nm) and high Q-factor (∼27) dipolar plasmonic resonances in the blue-violet region of the optical spectrum (∼3 eV) beyond the practical operational limits of traditional plasmonic metals. To realize high Q-factor Al resonators, we introduce a novel space mapping algorithm enabling inverse design of Al nanoantenna arrays at arbitrary sub/superstrate material interfaces with diminished radiative losses. We show that radiatively coupled Al nanoantenna arrays offer remarkably high-Q factor (27 ≤ Q ≤ 53) resonances over the entire visible spectrum and readily outperform similarly optimized silver (Ag) nanoantenna arrays in green-blue-violet wavelengths (≤550 nm) and near UV regime. This report shows that it is possible to realize high Q-factor aluminum resonators by suppressing radiative losses and that Al-based plasmonics holds enormous potential as a viable and low-cost alternative to noble metals. Our inverse-design technique, on the other hand, provides a general and efficient approach in engineering of high Q-factor resonator arrays, independently from the metals and sub/superstrates used.