Ultraconfined Plasmons in Atomically Thin Crystalline Silver Nanostructures

The ability to confine light down to atomic scales is critical for the development of applications in optoelectronics and optical sensing as well as for the exploration of nanoscale quantum phenomena. Plasmons in metallic nanostructures with just a few atomic layers in thickness can achieve this type of confinement, although fabrication imperfections down to the subnanometer scale hinder actual developments. Here, narrow plasmons are demonstrated in atomically thin crystalline silver nanostructures fabricated by prepatterning silicon substrates and epitaxially depositing silver films of just a few atomic layers in thickness. Specifically, a silicon wafer is lithographically patterned to introduce on-demand lateral shapes, chemically process the sample to obtain an atomically flat silicon surface, and epitaxially deposit silver to obtain ultrathin crystalline metal films with the designated morphologies. Structures fabricated by following this procedure allow for an unprecedented control over optical field confinement in the near-infrared spectral region, which is here illustrated by the observation of fundamental and higher-order plasmons featuring extreme spatial confinement and high-quality factors that reflect the crystallinity of the metal. The present study constitutes a substantial improvement in the degree of spatial confinement and quality factor that should facilitate the design and exploitation of atomic-scale nanoplasmonic devices for optoelectronics, sensing, and quantum-physics applications.