Core-shell metallic alloy nanopillars-in-dielectric hybrid metamaterials with magneto-plasmonic coupling
Combining plasmonic and magnetic properties, namely magneto-plasmonic coupling, inspires great research interest and the search for magneto-plasmonic nanostructure becomes considerably critical. In this work, we designed a nanopillar-in-matrix structure with core–shell alloyed nanopillars for both BaTiO 3 (BTO)-Au 0.5 Co 0.5 (AuCo) and BTO-Au 0.25 Cu 0.25 Co 0.25 Ni 0.25 (AuCuCoNi) hybrid systems, i.e., ferromagnetic alloy cores (e.g., Co or CoNi) with plasmonic shells (e.g., Au or Au/Cu). These core–shell alloy nanopillars are uniformly embedded into a dielectric BTO matrix to form a vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) structure. Both hybrid systems present excellent epitaxial quality and interesting multi-functionality, e.g., high magnetic anisotropy, magneto-optical coupling response, tailorable plasmonic resonance wavelength, tunable hyperbolic properties and strong optical anisotropy. These alloyed nanopillars-in-matrix designs provide enormous potential for complex hybrid material designs with multi-functionality and demonstrate strong interface enabled magneto-plasmonic coupling along with plasmonic and magnetic performance.