Modular Assembly of Metamaterials Using Light Gradients

This is a report on a pilot study that tests the feasibility of assembling photonic metamaterials (PMs) using light gradient forces. Following a strategy that works like modular construction, light gradient forces, produced by a tightly focused, 1D standing wave optical trap, time-multiplexed across a 2D lattice are used to assemble voxels consisting of prefabricated, monodispersed nanoparticles (NPs) with radii ranging from 30 to 500 nm into 3D structures on a hydrogel scaffold. Hundreds of NPs can be manipulated concurrently into a complex heterogeneous voxel this way, and then the process can be repeated by stitching together voxels to form a metamaterial of any size, shape, and constituency although imperfectly. Imperfections introduce random phase shifts and amplitude variations that can have an adverse effect on the band structure. Regardless, PMs are created this way using two different dielectric NPs, polystyrene and rutile, and then the near-infrared performance for each is analyzed with angle-, wavelength-, and polarization-dependent reflection spectroscopy. The cross-polarized spectra show evidence of a resonance peak. Interestingly, whereas the line shape from the polystyrene array is symmetric, the rutile array is not, which may be indicative of Fano resonance. So, even with the structural defects, reflection spectroscopy reveals a resonance.