Opt Quant Electron (2018) 50:237
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-018-1507-z
1 3
Metal layers with subwavelength texturing
for broadband enhancement of photocatalytic processes
in microreactors
M. Rašljić
1
· M. Obradov
1
· Ž. Lazić
1
· D. Vasiljević Radović
1
· Ž. Čupić
2
·
D. Stanisavljev
3
Received: 26 October 2017 / Accepted: 18 May 2018
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract In this paper we joined plasmonics and microreactors for photocatalytic opto-
fuidic devices. To this purpose we consider the use of subwavelength texturing of plas-
monic flms applied to microreactor channel bottom to ensure SPP localization and feld
enhancement. The small volume of the microchannel is ideal for the enhancement of pho-
tocatalytic processes using localized evanescent felds. A great advantage of our approach
is that it is highly compatible with the standard chemical bulk micromachining techniques
which are commonly used in fabrication of the microreactors i.e. standard photolithogra-
phy can be used to defne microchannels, and radiofrequent sputtering to deposit a gold
flm as a plasmonic material over the roughened surface. Subwavelength surface texturing
can be obtained by varying etching techniques and parameters and the microreactor build-
ing materials. We show using ab initio FEM modeling that the stochastic surface profle
ensures broadband coupling of visible light as well as enables us to merge plasmonic sen-
sors and microreactors into a single device.
Keywords Plasmonic · Microreactors · Thin flms · Photocatalysis
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Focus on Optics and Bio-photonics, Photonica 2017.
Guest Edited by Jelena Radovanovic, Aleksandar Krmpot, Marina Lekic, Trevor Benson, Mauro
Pereira, Marian Marciniak.
* M. Rašljić
milena@nanosys.ihtm.bg.ac.rs
1
Centre of Microelectronic Technologies, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy,
University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
2
Centre of Catalysis and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy,
University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
3
Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 12-16, 11000 Belgrade,
Serbia