The high-cost of fabrication of nanohole arrays for extraordinary optical transmission, surface-plasmon-resonance-based
sensors, inhibits their widespread commercial adoption. Production typically involves the application of
small-area patterning techniques, such as focused-ion-beam milling, and electron-beam lithography onto high-cost
gold-coated substrates. Moving to lower-cost manufacturing is a critical step for applications such as the detection of
environmental oil-leaks, or water quality assurance. In these applications, the sensitivity requirements are relatively
low, and a bio-compatible inert surface, such as gold, is unnecessary. We report on the optical response of
aluminum-coated nano-bucket arrays fabricated on flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The arrays are
fabricated using an economical roll-to-roll UV-casting process from large sheets of nickel templates generated from
master quartz stamps. The nano-featured surface is subsequently coated with 50 nm of thermally-evaporated
aluminum. The roll-to-roll production process has a 97% yield over a 600 m roll producing nano-buckets with 240
nm diameters, 300 nm deep, with a 70° taper. When exposed to a series of refractive index standards (glucose
solutions), changes in the locations of the resonance transmission peaks result in optical sensitivities as high as 390
± 20 nm/RIU. The peak transmission is approximately 5% of illumination, well within the sensitivity requirements
of most common low-cost detectors.
The long anticipated deployment of nano-optics that can enable next generation computing has encountered several practical impediments that have delayed widespread adoption in commercial processes. However, the global market in nano-enabled products is expected to grow to over $80B USD within the next 3 years. In response, the research community is creating solutions to overcome challenging issues such as reliability and cost-effective fabrication. New approaches in sensing, continuous uptime powering, and post silicon manufacturing will maximize overall performance and allow unprecedented commercial applications. This paper reviews present limitations of nano-optics and then considers the new generation of devices and their manufacturing that may turn promises into reality. We highlight several recent innovations: high sensitivity/selectivity nano-optical sensing devices; sustainable power from polymer energy harvesting and storage; optical variable devices for visual authentication of secure documents; and nano-template masters for high-volume manufacturing.
Successful trials have been made through a designed algorithm to quantize, compress and optically encode unsigned 8 bit integer values in the form of images using nano optical features. The periodicity of the nano scale features (nano gratings) have been designed and investigated both theoretically and experimentally to create distinct states of variation (three on state and one off state). The benefits of using a 4 state unit information carrier is been investigated through transmission models of non ergodic and ergodic signals. A thorough investigation has targeted the effects of the use of multi-varied state nano optical features on data storage density and consequent data transmission rates.
In this work the dependency of the transmitted spectrum through arrays of nano-holes on the angle of
incident light was investigated. The arrays of nano-holes fabricated on thin aluminum (Al) layer which was
deposited on a quartz substrate were used to observe how change of the angle of incident light could change
the peak of transmitted spectrum. Through far-field spectroscopy it was shown that the transmitted spectrum
is detectable at the distances beyond 20 cm.
In this work, the diffractive capability of nano-scale gratings fabricated on transparent substrates is
investigated. Nano-hole arrays of 9 to 20 mm2 with 450 nm, 550 nm and 650 nm periodicities were milled on 5
nm-thick chromium coated sheet of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using a focused ion beam
(FIB) to create periodicity-dependent diffraction patterns. Based on the method with which the diffraction
pattern was measured a new technology is proposed in which the optical signals are used to encode
information.
In this article, we present a novel low temperature fabrication process using focused ion beam (FIB) for CMOS
compatible photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells are used for scavenging light energy to power CMOS devices and
integrating photovoltaic cells on the same CMOS die for self-powering integrated circuits is highly desirable.
Integrating such photovoltaic cells as a post-process of the pre-fabricated CMOS die will avoid many complex
assembling steps as well as unpredictable interconnect problems.
To demonstrate the proof of concept, we have developed low temperature fabrication process to avoid damage to the
pre-fabricated CMOS dies. We are also going to introduce focused-ion beam (FIB) as an implantation source to dope
silicon wafer for desired concentration. The successfully fabricated demonstration device is tested using a solar
simulator. The results obtained from the experimental data indicate that the demonstration device works perfectly as a
photovoltaic cell rather with very low efficiency (0.004%).
In this work, a new approach for optimizing organic photovoltaics using nanostructure arrays exhibiting surface
plasmons is presented. Periodic nanohole arrays were fabricated on gold- and silver-coated flexible substrates,
and were thereafter used as light transmitting anodes for solar cells. Transmission measurements on the
plasmonic thin film made of gold and silver revealed enhanced transmission at specific wavelengths matching
those of the photoactive polymer layer. Compared to the indium tin oxide-based photovoltaic cells, the plasmonic
solar cells showed overall improvements in efficiency up to 4.8-fold for gold and 5.1-fold for the silver,
respectively.
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