DCMPMS Seminars

Nanostructured metasurfaces via controlled fluid Instabilities

by Dr. Tapajyoti Dasgupta (Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland)

Monday, December 9, 2019 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at WS14
Description
Modern devices require the tuning of the size, shape and spatial arrangement of nanoobjects and their assemblies with nanometer scale precision, over large-area and sometimes soft substrates. Such stringent multi-scale and mechanical requirements are beyond the reach of conventional lithography techniques or simpler self-assembly approaches. In this talk, we will demonstrate an unprecedented control over the fluid instabilities of thin glass films as a simple approach for the self-assembly of advanced all-dielectric metasurfaces1,2. We show and model the tailoring of the position, shape, size and inter-particle distance of nano-objects with feature sizes below ten nanometers. This simple and versatile approach can generate optical nanostructures over tens-of-centimeters sized rigid and soft substrates, with better optical performance and a resolution on par with advanced lithography-based processes. By a programmable control of the nanoimprinting method and the initial film thickness we show that we can achieve tunable particle size and lattice using the same master Silicon mold. To underline the potential of our approach, we demonstrate various optical phenomenon. Our ability to fabricate the metasurfaces on stretchable substrates without undergoing any lift off process finds application in mechano-chromic sensors. The ability to fabricate quasi 3D structures find application in phase tunable metasurfaces. Lastly, by having an unprecedented control over the lattice and particle size we demonstrate sharp Fano resonances with the highest Quality factor (𝑄. 𝐹~300) in the visible to date. Such resonances are exploited to realize high efficiency protein monolayer detection and to generate strong Second harmonic generation highlighting the unprecedented reconciliation between state-of-the-art optical performance and simple self-assembly fabrication approaches.

We also show such process is well adapted to other class of materials. In particular, we will show for the first time by playing with the surface properties we can fabricate arrays of liquid metals like Gallium. Such liquid metals show interesting physical properties because of their UV based plasma frequency, and superconductivity at 7K.

References
[1]     	Self-assembly of nanostructured glass metasurfaces via template fluid  instabilities; Tapajyoti Das Gupta et al. Nature  Nanotechnology: 14,320-327,2019.
[2]     	Template assisted dewetting of optical glasses for large area, flexible and stretchable all dielectricmetasurfaces; Tapajyoti Das Gupta et al. CLEO 2018