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

NSF SBIR一期项目是开发一系列以半导体纳米晶体和贵金属纳米棒为吸收材料的光边缘和带通薄膜滤光片。基于纳米晶体的薄膜滤光片将依赖于半导体和贵金属纳米晶体的独特特性——尺寸依赖吸收。半导体纳米晶体是相应块状材料的纳米级碎片；它们中的大多数现在可以使用基于解决方案的技术进行合成和处理。半导体纳米晶体的吸收和发射特性是其最具吸引力的特性。金纳米棒是本项目将使用的另一种吸收材料。预测金纳米棒的纵向吸收可以达到微波或近红外范围。薄膜滤光片在军事和民用方面都有广泛的应用，具有巨大的商业潜力。薄膜滤光片几乎应用于所有的光学器件中。薄膜滤光片覆盖了非常广泛的光波长范围，在军用和民用光学器件中都有很大的应用潜力。

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.