Towards integrated metatronics: a holistic approach on precise optical and electrical properties of Indium Tin Oxide

Abstract

The class of transparent conductive oxides includes the material indium tin oxide (ITO) and has become a widely used material of modern every-day life such as in touch screens of smart phones and watches, but also used as an optically transparent low electrically-resistive contract in the photovoltaics industry. More recently ITO has shown epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) behavior in the telecommunication frequency band enabling both strong index modulation and other optically-exotic applications such as metatronics. However, the ability to precisely obtain targeted electrical and optical material properties in ITO is still challenging due to complex intrinsic effects in ITO and as such no integrated metatronic platform has been demonstrated to-date. Here we deliver an extensive and accurate description process parameter of RF-sputtering, showing a holistic control of the quality of ITO thin films in the visible and particularly near-infrared spectral region. We are able to custom-engineer the ENZ point across the telecommunication band by explicitly controlling the sputtering process conditions. Exploiting this control, we design a functional sub-wavelength-scale filter based on lumped circuit-elements, towards the realization of integrated metatronic devices and circuits.