Plasmonic enhancements of photoluminescence in hybrid Si nanostructures with Au fabricated by fully top-down lithography

The authors study plasmonic enhancements of photoluminescence (PL) in Si nanodisk (ND) arrays hybridized with nanostructures such as nanoplates of Au, where these hybrid nanostructures are fabricated by fully top-down lithography: neutral-beam etching using bio-nano-templates and high-resolution electron-beam lithography. The separation distance between the Si ND and Au nanostructure surfaces is precisely controlled by inserting a thin SiO(2) layer with a thickness of 3 nm. We observe that PL intensities in the Si NDs are enhanced by factors up to 5 depending on the wavelength by integrating with the Au nanoplates. These enhancements also depend on the size and shape of the Au nanoplates.