Effect of thin silicon dioxide layers on resonant frequency in infrared metamaterials

Infrared metamaterials fabricated on semiconductor substrates exhibit a high degree of sensitivity to very thin (as small as 2 nm) layers of low permittivity materials between the metallic elements and the underlying substrate. We have measured the resonant frequencies of split ring resonators and square loops fabricated on Si wafers with silicon dioxide thicknesses ranging from 0 to 10 nm. Resonance features blue shift with increasing silicon dioxide thickness. These effects are explained by the silicon dioxide layer forming a series capacitance to the fringing field across the elements. Resonance coupling to the Si-O vibrational absorption has been observed. Native oxide layers which are normally ignored in numerical simulations of metamaterials must be accounted for to produce accurate predictions. © 2010 Optical Society of America.