Abstract
Flexible and stretchable photonics are emerging fields aiming to develop novel applications where the devices need to conform to uneven surfaces or whenever lightness and reduced thickness are major requirements. However, owing to the relatively small refractive index of transparent soft matter including most polymers, these materials are not well adapted for light management at visible and near-infrared frequencies. Here we demonstrate simple, low cost and efficient protocols for fabricating Si1−xGex-based, sub-micrometric dielectric antennas over record scales (50 mm wafers) with ensuing hybrid integration into different plastic supports. The transfer process has a near-unity yield: up to 99.94% for disordered structures and 99.5% for the ordered counterpart. Finally, we benchmark the optical quality of the dielectric antennas with light scattering measurements, demonstrating the control of the islands structural color and the onset of sharp Mie modes after encapsulation in plastic. Thanks to the ease of implementation of our fabrication methods, these results are relevant for the integration of SiGe-based dielectric Mie resonators in flexible substrates over large surfaces.
Highlights
Flexible and stretchable photonics are emerging fields aiming to develop novel applications where the devices need to conform to uneven surfaces or whenever lightness and reduced thickness are major requirements
We benchmark the optical quality of the dielectric antennas with light scattering measurements, demonstrating the control of the islands structural colour and the onset of sharp Mie modes after encapsulation in plastic
Polymers and other soft materials have been extensively studied for flexible photonics via nanoimprinting, direct laser writing, and 3D printing.[19,20]
Summary
Flexible and stretchable photonics are emerging fields aiming to develop novel applications where the devices need to conform to uneven surfaces or whenever lightness and reduced thickness are major requirements. Low cost and efficient protocols for fabricating Si1−x Gex -based, sub-micrometric dielectric antennas over record scales (50 mm wafers) with ensuing hybrid integration into different plastic supports. We join the simplicity and low cost of solid state dewetting[26] of ultra-thin Si, SiGe and Ge films on SiO2 for the fabrication of sub-micrometric dielectric Mie resonators[27] over record-scales (50 mm diameter wafers) with two distinct and efficient protocols for encapsulating them into flexible and transparent, organic supports. The second method employs polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) which, in addition to bending to extreme angles, is stretchable In both cases, the Si1−x Gex particles remain embedded in the cross-linked polymer and can be peeled from the original substrate with an extremely high yield (larger than 99%). Optical experiments are used to asses the optical quality of our flexible photonic devices
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