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Fabrication of Periodic Gold Nanocup Arrays Using Colloidal Lithography
Published on: September 2, 2017
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Characterization of Chiral Nanostructured Surfaces Made via Colloidal Lithography.
Sabine Portal1, Carles Corbella1,2, Oriol Arteaga3
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
|August 12, 2023
Summary
Optically anisotropic materials with screw-like pillars were created using colloidal lithography. Their unique chiral structures influence optical properties like birefringence and dichroism, especially at oblique angles.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Optics
Background:
- Optically anisotropic materials are crucial for advanced optical devices.
- Colloidal lithography offers a scalable method for fabricating nanostructures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To produce optically anisotropic materials using colloidal lithography.
- To characterize the influence of fabrication parameters on optical properties.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of silica nanoparticle masks via Langmuir-Blodgett self-assembly.
- Pattern transfer using ion beam etching at oblique incidence.
- Characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy, and polarimetry.
- Gold film deposition for plasmon resonance enhancement.
Main Results:
- Successfully created heterochiral structures with screw-like pillars on silicon and glass substrates.
- Demonstrated that etching direction significantly impacts linear birefringence and dichroism.
- Observed enhanced chiroptical responses with increasing angle of incidence.
Conclusions:
- Colloidal lithography and ion beam etching enable precise control over anisotropic material properties.
- The fabricated materials exhibit tunable polarimetric responses dependent on structural chirality and incidence angle.
- These findings are relevant for developing novel optical components and sensors.
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