SBIR Phase I: Large nanostructured changes in refractive index in any 3D geometry

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是实现传统纳米纤维的替代品，传统纳米纤维依赖于二维层中的结构材料。这些过程通常不仅限制了当前的设计空间和原型/制造方法，而且还限制了开发所需的时间和资源，使可行的商业应用仅限于大批量市场。这些缺点将通过开发一种新形式的纳米纤维3D打印来解决，这种打印能够快速原型制作和大规模制造光子组件，并且具有更便宜的系统，能够实现组件的大规模定制，从而更快地满足小批量和大批量市场的市场需求。使用这种用于光子元件的纳米纤维工艺开发的产品可以解决具有低损耗光学互连的微处理器中的效率低下问题，以及实现复杂的光学滤波器、近眼显示器，小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目开发了一种用于光学和光子元件的纳米纤维工艺，该工艺将在纳米级分辨率下制造出折射率变化很大的任何3D具有梯度控制的几何形状。该方法使用纳米材料的体积沉积，所述纳米材料由高折射率纳米纤维组成，所述纳米材料形成图案化的凝胶支架，所述凝胶支架一旦收缩，就提高图案化材料的分辨率和密度。通过利用双光子光刻和线性收缩因子，该工艺可以实现低于25 nm的特征尺寸，同时允许在任何3D几何形状中创建梯度图案。将这种图案化和收缩策略与体积存款高折射率介电纳米材料的方法相结合，将允许对折射率进行前所未有的控制，允许光以前所未有的控制在3D中雕刻。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to enable an alternative to traditional nanofabrication which relies on structuring material in two-dimensional layers. These processes often limit the current design-space and prototyping/manufacturing methods with not only what can be made, but also the time and resources required for development, relegating viable commercial applications to only high-volume markets. These shortcomings will be addressed by developing a new form of nanofabrication 3D-printing capable of rapid-prototyping and mass-manufacturing photonic components with cheaper systems enabling the mass-customization of components that can more rapidly address market needs in both low- and high-volume markets. Products developed using this nanofabrication process for photonics components may address inefficiencies in datacenters with low-loss optical interconnects, as well as enabling complex optical filters, near-eye displays, and ultracompact lenses.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops a nanofabrication process for optical and photonic components to be fabricated with large changes in refractive index at nanoscale resolutions into any 3D geometry with graded control. The process uses volumetric deposition of nanomaterials consisting of high refractive index dielectrics into a patterned polyelectrolyte gel scaffold which, once shrunken, improves both resolution and density of the patterned materials. By utilizing two-photon lithography and linear shrink factors the process can achieve feature sizes below 25nm while allowing for the creation of gradient patterns in any 3D geometry. Combining this patterning and shrink strategy with a method to volumetrically deposit high refractive index dielectric nanomaterials will allow for a degree of control over refractive index never before possible; allowing light to be sculpted in 3D with unprecedented control.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.