  Here we propose the efficient confinement of ultraviolet (UV) light into the
plasmonic-photonic crystal hybrid, which can be practically developed by the
self-assembly of dielectric colloidal nanosphere monolayer onto a flat aluminum
(Al) film. Using a numerical approach, we analyzed modal characteristics of
each different resonant mode at the UV wavelengths including surface plasmon
polariton (SPP) mode and waveguided (WG) mode and tuned these resonant modes
from deep to far UV simply by adjusting the size of dielectric colloidal
nanosphere. The calculated quality-factor (Q-factor) of such plasmonic-photonic
crystal hybrid is at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the
existing Al nanostructures (Al nanoparticles, nanodisks, nanovoids, or
nanogratings) standing on the dielectric substrate. Also, we systematically
studied how the amount of native oxide, which can be generated during the
general process for the deposition of Al, can influence on both the SPP and WG
modes of such plasmonic-photonic crystal hybrid in order to guide strategies
for a realistic experimental fabrication and exploitation of relevant optical
responses. We anticipate that the theoretical results in this paper enable a
promising step in the enhancement of UV light interaction with the nanophotonic
structure in a versatile, but highly efficient way.
