Atomic Layer Deposition for Large-Area Sub-10 Nanometer Patterning for Super Absorbing Optical Devices

纳米制造是许多应用的重要驱动力，包括纳米材料，纳米电子学和纳米光子学。在过去的几十年里，我们见证了纳米制造能力的重大进步。可以使用各种自上而下和自下而上的方法来制造下至纳米尺度的不同的预先设计的图案。然而，使用传统的制造技术在大面积上制造具有亚10纳米特征的纳米结构仍然是一个巨大的挑战。开发新的应用程序需要这种小规模的结构。使用纳米级天线结构，局部光场增强或“热点”是可能的。金属纳米粒子之间的间隙越小，就会产生越强的“热点”。因此，非常需要一种用于具有亚10纳米特征的大面积纳米图案化的可负担得起的制造方法。该奖项将采用原子层沉积工艺来开发一种廉价的纳米制造方法，以制造具有精确控制间隙的表面纳米粒子，可以有效地将光场集中到大面积的10纳米以下。这一跨学科的努力将纳米制造，计算电磁学，光电子学和光学传感联系起来，并将为学生提供一个很好的机会，培养在全球市场上取得成功所需的技能，价值观和广泛的观点，并在复杂的多学科项目中发挥领导作用。该奖项将探索使用这种新的纳米制造方法来制造超吸收超材料表面结构或具有可控的超窄（亚10纳米）间隙的超表面的潜力。具体而言，该奖项将探索负担得起的制造工艺，以生产具有可控分离距离的金属纳米粒子，该距离由原子层沉积（ALD）介电薄膜定义，厚度精度为~0.1nm。这种能力将导致光与物质在极深的亚波长尺度上相互作用的革命性进展。与预先设计的超材料腔结构相结合，入射光可以有效地被捕获在纳米间隙内，从而产生强烈增强的局部场。通过控制纳米粒子的几何参数，特别是差距尺寸，可以接近等离子体增强的极限，并在大面积上方便地表征。在这个项目中，ALD定义的薄膜将与周期性和随机纳米粒子相结合，以制造大面积的超吸收超表面，这将使新的芯片上能量收集，转换和生物传感应用的发展成为可能。

Nanomanufacturing is an important driving force for many applications, including nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, and nanophotonics. In the past decades, we have witnessed significant advances in nanomanufacturing capabilities. Different pre-designed patterns down to nanometer scale can be fabricated using various top-down and bottom-up methods. However, it is still a great challenge to manufacture nanostructures with sub-10 nanometer features over large areas using conventional fabrication techniques. Such small-scale structures are needed for the development of new applications. Using nano-scale antenna structures, localized optical field enhancements or 'hot-spots' are possible. Smaller gaps between the metallic nanopatterns will result in stronger 'hot spots'. Therefore, an affordable manufacturing method for large-area nanopatterning with sub-10 nanometer features is highly desirable. This award will employ the atomic layer deposition process to develop an inexpensive nanomanufacturing method to fabricate surface nanopatterns with accurately controlled gaps that can efficiently concentrate light field down to sub-10 nanometer scales over large areas. This interdisciplinary effort will link nanomanufacturing, computational electromagnetics, optoelectronics and optical sensing, and will provide a great opportunity for students to develop skills, values, and broad perspectives necessary for success in the global marketplace and for leadership in complex, multidisciplinary projects.Building on recent successes in light management using nanostructures, this award will explore the potential to use this new nanomanufacturing method to fabricate super absorbing metamaterial surface structures or metasurfaces with controllable, ultra-narrow (sub-10nm) gaps. Specifically, this award will explore affordable fabrication processes to produce metallic nanopatterns with controllable separation distances defined by atomic layer deposited (ALD) dielectric films with the thickness accuracy of ~0.1nm. Such a capability will result in revolutionary advances in light-matter interactions at extremely deep subwavelength scales. Combined with pre-designed metamaterial cavity structures, incident light can be trapped within the nanogaps efficiently, resulting in a strongly enhanced localized field. By controlling the geometric parameters of nanopatterns, especially the gap dimension, the ultimate limit for plasmonic enhancement may be approached and be characterized conveniently over large areas. In this project, ALD-defined films will be combined with periodic and random nanopatterns to manufacture large area super absorbing metasurfaces, which will enable the development of novel on-chip energy collection, conversion and biosensing applications.