Fabrication of large area 3D ‘fishnet’ optical metamaterial structures

Abstract

We present a novel fabrication process for large-area multilayer ‘fishnet’ metamaterial structures for near IR applications. This fabrication method involves defining a complimentary template structure onto a quartz wafer using deep-UV lithography and conventional etching procedures, e-beam deposition of metal and dielectric layers on top of the patterned substrate, and a ‘lift-off’ process which removes the template structure along with the metal and dielectric layers overlying it to yield the ‘fishnet’ device structure. This fabrication process has led to the realization of ‘fishnet’ metamaterial structures, with multiple stacks of metallic–dielectric–metallic layers, over large areas. Since it utilizes processes which are compatible with current semiconductor processing technology, this fabrication approach is well suited for batch-fabrication.