The effect of Ti and ITO adhesion layers on gold split-ring resonators

Ultrathin adhesion layers serve a well-documented fabrication purpose while its influence on the optical properties of gold nanostructures is often neglected. Gold split-ring resonators are fabricated with two commonly used adhesion layers: titanium and indium tin oxide. When compared to all-gold reference samples, a spectral shift of the ground mode resonance is observed.

For the titanium sample the spectral shift is accompanied by a resonance broadening, which is less profound for indium tin oxide. The mutual correlation between the shift and the broadening is shown to be qualitatively consistent with perturbative considerations.