CAREER: Large Scale Manufacturing of Metasurfaces Using Microsphere Photolithography

这个教师早期职业发展（CAREER）项目的研究目标是产生必要的基本制造科学，以经济地创造大规模的元表面。超颖表面是微尺度到纳米尺度的结构化表面，其被设计成产生超出自然界中可用的电磁特性，并且具有许多潜在的基本应用，包括增强热传递、增加气体传感器的检测极限和光学器件。使用传统的基于光刻的方法，超颖表面是非常昂贵的，并且因此通常仅以厘米尺度产生用于实验室演示。该项目将创建新的制造技术，强调微球光刻（MPL），它使用自组装微球将光子射流聚焦到光刻胶层中，在表面产生压痕。随后将球体移除以显示图案。该项目将严格确定MPL的工艺-结构-元表面性能关系，并建立扩大到大规模生产的途径，包括卷对卷印刷和电铸。综合教育计划将通过允许学生设计/构建/测试设备来吸引学生，这些设备将展示与亚微米结构相关的改进性能，但在他们可以处理的规模上。特别强调的是增加第一代，农村，大学生和代表性不足的少数民族在工程的参与，以及发展训练有素的劳动力，为迅速崛起的先进光学部门。这项研究将创建一个框架，使用微球光刻（MPL）制造。该项目包括四个研究目标：（1）使用MPL生成复杂的超颖表面，（2）通过改进的自组装和计量学提高工艺的产量，（3）使用可重复使用的掩模（包括卷对卷配置）缩放工艺，以及（4）将MPL方法与电沉积相结合。包括正常和离轴照明的影响。这将促进更好的超颖表面性能，并解决在代表性试验台的背景下可扩展的低成本制造微到纳米结构的关键问题，包括建筑物的增强辐射冷却和平面光学。研究成果将是关于材料/光子射流相互作用的新知识，显着改善制造超颖表面和类似结构的制造平台。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to generate the fundamental manufacturing science necessary to economically create metasurfaces at large scales. Metasurfaces are microscale-to-nanoscale structured surfaces that are engineered to produce electromagnetic properties beyond what is available in nature, and have many potential fundamental applications applications including enhancing heat transfer, increasing the detection limits of gas sensors, and ultrathin optical devices. Using conventional lithography-based approaches, metasurfaces are very expensive, and as a result are generally produced only at the centimeter scale for laboratory demonstrations. This project will create new manufacturing techniques emphasizing Microsphere Photolithography (MPL), which uses self-assembled microspheres to focus photonic jets into a photoresist layer, generating indentations in the surface. The spheres are subsequently removed to reveal the pattern. The project will rigorously determine the process-structure-metasurface performance relationships for MPL and establish pathways to scale-up to mass production, including roll-to-roll printing and electroforming. The integrated education program will engage students by allowing them to design/build/test devices that demonstrate the improved performance associated with sub-micron structures but at scales that they can handle. A particular emphasis is placed on increasing the involvement of first generation, rural, college students and underrepresented minorities in engineering as well as developing a trained workforce for the rapidly emerging advanced optics sector. This research will create a framework for manufacturing using Microsphere Photolithography (MPL). The project entails four research objectives (1) generation of complex metasurfaces using MPL, (2) improving the yield of the process through improved self-assembly and metrology, (3) scaling the process using reusable masks including a roll-to-roll configuration and (4) integrating the MPL approach with electrodeposition The research will also generate accurate physics based models for the process, including the effects of normal and off-axis illumination. This will facilitate better metasurface performance and address the critical problem of scalable low-cost manufacturing of micro-to-nanostructures in the context of representative test-beds including enhanced radiative cooling of buildings, and planar optics. The research outcomes will be new knowledge about the material/photonic jet interaction, significantly improving the manufacturing platform for the fabrication of metasurfaces and similar structures.