SBIR Phase I: Fabrication of Nanocrystal-Based Thin Film Optical Filter

本研究的第一阶段是以半导体奈米晶体及贵金属奈米棒为吸收材料，发展一系列光学边缘及带通薄膜滤光片。基于纳米晶体的薄膜过滤器将依赖于它们的操作，半导体和贵金属纳米晶体的独特特征，尺寸依赖性吸收。半导体纳米晶体是相应大块材料的纳米尺寸片段;它们中的大多数现在可以使用基于溶液的技术合成和加工。半导体纳米晶体的尺寸效应是其最吸引人的特性。金纳米棒是另一种类型的吸收材料，将在这个项目中使用。金纳米棒的纵向吸收可以达到微波或近红外波段，具有巨大的商业应用潜力，在军事和民用领域有着广泛的应用。薄膜滤光片几乎应用于所有的光学器件中。该薄膜滤光片覆盖了很宽的光波长范围，在军用和民用光学器件中具有很大的应用潜力。

This NSF SBIR Phase I project is to develop a series of optical edge and band-pass thin film filters using semiconductor nano-crystals and noble metal nano-rod as the absorption materials. The nanocrystal-based thin film filters would rely for their operation on the unique feature, size dependent absorption, of semiconductor and noble metal nanocrystals. Semiconductor nanocrystals are nanometer-sized fragments of the corresponding bulk materials; most of them can now be synthesized and processed using solution-based techniques. The size-dependent absorption and emission is the most attractive feature of semiconductor nanocrystals. Gold nanorod is another type absorption material that will be used in this project. It has been predicted that the longitudinal absorption of the gold nanorod could reach microwave or near infrared range.The thin film optical filters are of great commercial potential with a wide variety of applications in both military and civilian purposes. Thin film filters have been involved in almost all optical devices. Covering a very broad range of wavelength of light, the thin film filters resulting from this project will have great potential to be utilized in both military and civilian optical devices.