Deep-UV (DUV) plasmonics can expand the possibilities of DUV-based techniques (i.e. UV lithography, UV spectroscopy, UV imaging, UV disinfection). Here we present that indium is useful for research of DUV plasmonics. According to dielectric function, indium and aluminum are low-loss, DUV plasmonic metals, of which the imaginary parts are far smaller than those of other metals (i.e. rhodium, platinum) in the DUV range. Additionally, the real parts in the whole DUV range are close to but smaller than -2, allowing efficient generation of surface plasmon polaritons on an indium or aluminum nanosphere. In comparison to aluminum, indium provides a distinctive feature for fabricating DUV-resonant substrates. It is highly apt to form a grainy deposition film on a standard, optically transparent substrate (i.e. fused silica). The surface plasmon resonance wavelength becomes promptly tailored by simply varying the deposition thickness of the films, resulting in different grain sizes. Thus, we fabricated indium-coated substrates having different plasmon resonance wavelengths by varying the deposition thicknesses from 10 to 50 nm. DUV resonance Raman scattering of adenine molecules was best enhanced using the 25 nm deposition thickness substrates by the factor of 2. Furthermore, the FDTD calculation simulated the electromagnetic field enhancement over a grainy, indium-coated fused silica substrate. Both results indicate how indium plays an indispensable role in study of DUV plasmonics.
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