Collaborative Research: Wafer-Scale, Defect-Free Assembly of Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanoarchitectures

这笔赠款支持在制造具有光操纵应用的三维功能纳米结构方面贡献基本新知识的研究，从而促进等离子激元和先进制造领域的基础科学和技术。通过三维等离子体纳米结构的周期性图案引导光的操纵，提供了以传统光学无法获得的方式利用光的非凡机会。然而，它的实际实施仍然受到在很大程度上依赖于纳米光刻的传统制造工艺的低产率、耗时和有限的可扩展性的挑战。本研究研究了一种新的基于三维纳米组装的纳米制造工艺来制备等离子体纳米结构。具有不同衬底的三维纳米结构的集成越来越受到人们的青睐，在成像器、传感器和激光器中得到了广泛的应用，这极大地造福了美国的经济和社会。该项目涉及多学科，涉及机械、光学和先进的纳米制造。它为本科生和研究生提供了极好的教育机会，并培养了妇女和代表性不足的少数群体对科学和工程的兴趣。三维(3D)等离子体纳米结构的制造在很大程度上依赖于传统纳米光刻技术的利用，这些技术涉及使用电子束、聚焦离子束或束干涉。然而，在包括柔性或曲面在内的各种衬底上采用这些传统技术存在重大挑战，特别是因为它们的主要设计是在热或化学后处理的辅助下在辐射敏感材料的平面上形成纳米颗粒。这项研究旨在开发一种新的纳米制造技术，以实现3D等离子体纳米结构在合适的接收器衬底上的确定性组装，从而允许施主晶片重复使用以节省成本。该过程包括在环境条件下使用水，而不需要额外的化学、热处理或机械处理，从而大大扩展了接收器衬底的类型，使其适用于任意材料。协作研究包括通过实验阐明关键的控制参数，支持多尺度/多物理计算模型支持的固液相互作用，以预测制造过程参数及其控制，并集成原子模拟。3D等离子纳米结构与混合像素成像器集成在一起，以展示其检测功能的增强。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports research that contributes fundamental new knowledge in the manufacturing of three-dimensional functional nanoarchitectures with applications in light manipulation, thus promoting basic science and technology in the fields of plasmonics and advanced manufacturing. Guided manipulation of light through periodic patterns of three-dimensional plasmonic nanoarchitectures provides remarkable opportunities to harness light in a way that cannot be obtained with conventional optics. However, its practical implementation remains challenged by the low-yield, time-consuming, and limited scalability of conventional fabrication processes that largely rely on the use of nanolithography. This research studies a new nanomanufacturing process based on three-dimensional nanoassembly to fabricate the plasmonic nanoarchitectures. The integration of three-dimensional nanoarchitectures with diverse substrates is increasingly preferred for broad applications in imagers, sensors and lasers, which greatly benefits the U.S. economy and society. The project is multidisciplinary and involves mechanics, optics and advanced nanomanufacturing. It provides excellent educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and fosters interest in science and engineering in women and under-represented minority groups. The fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) plasmonic nanoarchitectures largely relies upon the utilization of conventional nanolithography techniques that involve the use of either electron-beam, focused ion-beam, or beam interference. However, significant challenges exist in adopting these conventional techniques for diverse substrates including flexible or curved surfaces, especially, since they are principally designed to form nanopatterns on the flat surface of radiation-sensitive materials with the assistance of thermal or chemical post-treatments. This research is to develop a new nanomanufacturing technique that achieves deterministic assembly of 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures on suitable receiver substrates in a way that allows the donor wafer to be reused for cost-savings. The process involves the use of water under ambient conditions without additional need of chemical, thermal or mechanical treatments, thereby substantially extending the type of receiver substrate to arbitrary materials. The collaborative research involves experiments to elucidate critical controlling parameters and underpinning solid-liquid interactions supported by multiscale/multiphysics computation modelling to predict manufacturing process parameters and their control with integration of atomistic simulation. The 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures are integrated with hybrid pixel imagers to demonstrate the enhancement of their detection functionalities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.