Electrically excited plasmon resonances in hybrid metallic nano-structures as innovative sensor concept in bioanalytics

Inhalt:
Investigations on light emission by inelastic tunneling in metal-insulator-semiconductor structures, as concept for a new type of sensor, were performed. Tunneling junctions were designed, fabricated and characterized in terms of electrical performance and as source of electromagnetic radiation. The light emission process is a two stages process. Fluctuations of the current generate propagating surface plasmons, which are subsequently scattered by the structure roughness at the boundaries.