Characterization and tuning of anisotropy property of grating structure using electrical method

Abstract

Anisotropy is an important property used for characterizing objects. It is always analyzed by the conventional optical method. However, the conventional optical method, which used parameters changes for enhancing and adjusting the signals, is ineffective and inconvenient. In this study, a new on-chip electrical approach to characterize the anisotropy of the object was proposed. This approach utilized the electrical signal, photocurrent, to characterize the anisotropy features of the material. This near-field sensing approach can easily tune/enhance the anisotropy signals compared to the conventional far-field optical technique. As a simple and good example, a metal-grating structure was used. To describe the anisotropy property of the object, an electrical anisotropy, η, was introduced. The simulated results demonstrated that the proposed method is as accurate as the conventional optical method. Moreover, the electrical method is also more effective and flexible in adjusting and tuning the anisotropy signals. The most significant enhanced η mode was improved from 26.08% to 92.48%. This work hopefully will inspire more research into the development/integration of the on-chip sensing devices that serve next-generation sensors for biomolecular, chemical, and temperature-sensitive anisotropy materials.