Fabrication Of Nanohole Arrays Research Articles

Mid-infrared plasmonic filter arrays using nanoholes in gold and silver films.

Plasmonic filters based on subwavelength nanohole arrays are an attractive solution for creating arrays of filters with varying passbands in a single lithography step. In this work, we have developed a fabrication method which allows fabrication of nanohole arrays in silver by use of a thin layer of aluminum oxide, which serves the dual purpose of both capping layer and hardmask for metal patterning. We demonstrate arrays of gold and silver mid-infrared plasmonic filters, fabricated on silicon, intended for use in optical filter blocks or for future integration with infrared imagers. The filter arrays are designed for the wavelength range 2-7 µm, and exhibit peak filter transmission efficiencies around 70%.

Titanium Nitride Plasmonic Nanohole Arrays for CMOS-Compatible Integrated Refractive Index Sensing: Influence of Layer Thickness on Optical Properties

The combination of nanohole arrays with photodetectors can be a strategy for the large-scale fabrication of miniaturized and cost-effective refractive index sensors on the Si platform. However, complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication processes place restrictions in particular on the material that can be used for the fabrication of the structures. Here, we focus on using the CMOS compatible transition metal nitride Titanium Nitride (TiN) for the fabrication of nanohole arrays (NHAs). We investigate the optical properties of TiN NHAs with different TiN thicknesses (50 nm, 100 nm, and 150 nm) fabricated using high-precision industrial processes for possible applications in integrated, plasmonic refractive index sensors. Reflectance measurements show pronounced Fano-shaped resonances, with resonance wavelengths between 950 and 1200 nm, that can be attributed to extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) through the NHAs. Using the measured material permittivity as an input, the measured spectra are reproduced by simulations with a large degree of accuracy: Simulated and measured resonance wavelengths deviate by less than 10 nm, with an average deviation of 4 nm observed at incidence angles of 30° and 40°. Our experimental results demonstrate that an increase in the thickness of the TiN layer from 50 to 150 nm leads to a sensitivity increase from 614.5 nm/RIU to 765.4 nm/RIU, which we attribute to a stronger coupling between individual LSPRs at the hole edges with spatially extended SPPs. Our results can be used to increase the performance of TiN NHAs for applications in on-chip plasmonic refractive index sensors.

Preparation of Ordered Nanohole Arrays with High Aspect Ratios by Anodization of Prepatterned 304 Stainless Steel

A nanohole array structure with a regular array of cylindrical holes of a high aspect ratio with a period of 63 nm can be obtained by anodizing 304 stainless steel with a concave pattern. It was shown that matching the concave period to the anodization voltage is important to achieving the fabrication of nanohole arrays with a high aspect ratio. This is because the interhole distance of anodic porous oxide obtained by the anodization of 304 stainless steel in ethylene glycol containing 0.1 M ammonium fluoride depends on the anodization voltage. By optimizing the fabrication conditions, it was possible to fabricate highly ordered nanohole arrays with aspect ratios exceeding 100. The nanohole arrays obtained in this study are promising as key materials for fabricating various functional devices.

Periodic Nanohole Arrays with Enhanced Lasing and Spontaneous Emissions for Low-Cost Plasmonic Devices

Periodic arrays of air nanoholes in thin metal films that support surface plasmon resonances can provide an alternative approach for boosting the light–matter interactions at the nanoscale. Nanohole arrays have garnered great interest in recent years for their use in biosensing, light emission enhancement, and spectroscopy. Here, we employ a simple technique to fabricate nanohole arrays and examine their photonic applications including enhanced lasing and spontaneous emission of novel nanomaterials. In contrast to the complicated and most commonly used electron-beam lithography technique, hexagonal arrays of nanoholes are fabricated by using a simple combination of shadowing nanosphere lithography technique and electron-beam deposition. Through spectral and temporal characterizations, it was shown that these arrays offer an enhancement in the lasing emission of an organic dye liquid gain medium with a quality factor above 150 as well as an accelerated decay rate for CdSe quantum dots. The simple fabrication of nanohole arrays together with their excellent optical responses can therefore offer a great potential in the industrialization of plasmonic devices for use in various realms of emerging technologies such as gas sensing, biomedical imaging, and ultrafast on-chip coherent light sources.

On the Adsorption of DNA Origami Nanostructures in Nanohole Arrays.

DNA origami nanostructures are versatile substrates for the controlled arrangement of molecular capture sites with nanometer precision and thus have many promising applications in single-molecule bioanalysis. Here, we investigate the adsorption of DNA origami nanostructures in nanohole arrays which represent an important class of biosensors and may benefit from the incorporation of DNA origami-based molecular probes. Nanoholes with well-defined diameter that enable the adsorption of single DNA origami triangles are fabricated in Au films on Si wafers by nanosphere lithography. The efficiency of directed DNA origami adsorption on the exposed SiO2 areas at the bottoms of the nanoholes is evaluated in dependence of various parameters, i.e., Mg2+ and DNA origami concentrations, buffer strength, adsorption time, and nanohole diameter. We observe that the buffer strength has a surprisingly strong effect on DNA origami adsorption in the nanoholes and that multiple DNA origami triangles with 120 nm edge length can adsorb in nanoholes as small as 120 nm in diameter. We attribute the latter observation to the low lateral mobility of once adsorbed DNA origami on the SiO2 surface, in combination with parasitic adsorption to the Au film. Although parasitic adsorption can be suppressed by modifying the Au film with a hydrophobic self-assembled monolayer, the limited surface mobility of the adsorbed DNA origami still leads to poor localization accuracy in the nanoholes and results in many DNA origami crossing the boundary to the Au film even under optimized conditions. We discuss possible ways to minimize this effect by varying the composition of the adsorption buffer, employing different fabrication conditions, or using other substrate materials for nanohole array fabrication.

Bottom-up fabrication of nanohole arrays loaded with gold nanoparticles: extraordinary plasmonic sensors.

A chemical route to periodic hole arrays in gold films whose holes are loaded with single gold nanoparticles is presented, paving the road to mass production of highly sensitive plasmonic sensors on large areas.

Simple, Fast, and Cost-Effective Fabrication of Wafer-Scale Nanohole Arrays on Silicon for Antireflection

A simple, fast, and cost-effective method was developed in this paper for the high-throughput fabrication of nanohole arrays on silicon (Si), which is utilized for antireflection. Wafer-scale polystyrene (PS) monolayer colloidal crystal was developed as templates by spin-coating method. Metallic shadow mask was prepared by lifting off the oxygen etched PS beads from the deposited chromium film. Nanohole arrays were fabricated by Si dry etching. A series of nanohole arrays were fabricated with the similar diameter but with different depth. It is found that the maximum depth of the Si-hole was determined by the diameter of the Cr-mask. The antireflection ability of these Si-hole arrays was investigated. The results show that the reflection decreases with the depth of the Si-hole. The deepest Si-hole arrays show the best antireflection ability (reflection < 9%) at long wavelengths (>600 nm), which was about 28 percent of the nonpatterned silicon wafer’s reflection. The proposed method has the potential for high-throughput fabrication of patterned Si wafer, and the low reflectivity allows the application of these wafers in crystalline silicon solar cells.

On-chip nanohole array based sensing: a review

The integration of nanohole array based plasmonic sensors into microfluidic systems has enabled the emergence of platforms with unique capabilities and a diversified palette of applications. Recent advances in fabrication techniques together with novel implementation schemes have influenced the progress of these optofluidic platforms. Here, we review the advances that nanohole array based sensors have experienced since they were first merged with microfluidics. We examine established and new fabrication methodologies that have enabled both the fabrication of nanohole arrays with improved optical attributes and a reduction in manufacturing costs. The achievements of several platforms developed to date and the significant benefits obtained from operating the nanoholes as nanochannels are also reviewed herein. Finally, we discuss future opportunities for on-chip nanohole array sensors by outlining potential applications and the use of the abilities of the nanostructures beyond the optical context.

Inexpensive and fast wafer-scale fabrication of nanohole arrays in thin gold films forplasmonics

In this paper, a fast and inexpensive wafer-scale process for the fabricationof arrays of nanoscale holes in thin gold films for plasmonics is shown. Theprocess combines nanosphere lithography using spin-coated polystyrene beadswith a sputter-etching process. This allows the batch fabrication of several1000 µm2 large hole arrays in 200 nm thick gold films without the use of an adhesion layer for the goldfilm. The hole size and lattice period can be tuned independently with this method.This allows tuning of the optical properties of the hole arrays for the desiredapplication. An example application, refractive index sensing, is demonstrated.

Preparation of Nanostructured Film Arrays for Transmission Localized Surface Plasmon Sensing

This article presents a concise review of preparation methods for transparent nanostructured films, with an emphasis on their current applications in transmission-localized surface plasmon resonance (T-LSPR) sensing. One of the first methods used for the fabrication of transparent nanostructured metal films is a direct vacuum evaporation of thin gold films. Self-induced formations of small gold islands result in transparent nanostructured gold arrays. The most well-established method is a nanosphere lithography developed by Van Duyne. Nanotriangular island arrays with controlled size and optical properties can be fabricated by this protocol. A different nanolithography method known as focused ion beam milling is reported and used for the fabrication of nanohole arrays. Simple assembly of solution-phase synthesized nanoparticles has also been utilized for the preparation of nanoparticle arrays capable of T-LSPR sensing. Lastly, this article also describes a new preparation strategy, in which self-assembly/thermolysis of nanoparticle multilayers is employed to obtain transparent nanoisland architectures on glass substrates.

Fabrication of Nanohole Array by Anodization of Al and Its Application to Ordered Surfaces

The fabrication of functional surfaces with fine ordered structures from submicron to nanometer scales has attracted increasing attention due to its application in various fields. In the present report, fabrication of several types of functional ordered surfaces based on the highly ordered anodic porous alumina are described. Anodic porous alumina, which is formed by anodization of Al in acidic electrolyte, is a typical self-ordered material and is promising candidate for the nanofabrication. As typical example of the fabrication of ordered surfaces, the highly ordered structures of the anodic porous alumina could be applied to the mask processes, in which the metal dot arrays or hole arrays are formed on the substrates. Some typical examples of the application of the obtained ordered surfaces were also described

Fabrication of a Well-Ordered Nanohole Array Stable at Room Temperature

We report on the fabrication of a new type of nanotemplate surface consisting of a hexagonally well-ordered array of one monolayer deep holes with a tunable size of about 4 nm (2) and a fixed spacing of 7 nm. The nanohole array fabrication is based on the strain-relief trigonal network formed in the 2 monolayer Ag on Pt(111) system. Removing about 0.1 ML of the Ag top layer of this surface structure, for example, by He- or Ar-ion sputtering, leads to the formation of nanoholes at specific domains of the trigonal network, which are stable at room temperature.

Fabrication of Nanohole Array via Nanodot Array Using Simple Self-Assembly Process of Diblock Copolymer

We present a simple self-assembly process for fabricating a nanohole array via a nanodot array on a glass substrate by dripping ethanol onto the nanodot array. It is found that well-aligned arrays of nanoholes as well as nanodots are formed on the whole surface of the glass. A dot is transformed into a hole, and the alignment of the nanodots strongly reflects that of the nanoholes. We find that the change in the depth of holes agrees well with the change in the surface energy with the ethanol concentration in the aqueous solution. We believe that the interfacial energy between the nanodots and the dripped ethanol causes the transformation from nanodots into nanoholes. The nanohole arrays are directly applicable to molds for nanopatterned media used in high-density near-field optical data storage. The bit data can be stored and read out using probes with small apertures.

Nano-patterning by pulsed laser irradiation in near field

Pulsed laser irradiation in near field is one of effective ways to break optical diffraction limit for surface nano-structuring. Femtosecond laser (400 nm, 100 fs) irradiation through near-field scanning optical microscopy for sub-50 nm resolution is studied. Application of transparent particles' mask by the self-assembly for nano-hole array fabrication is also investigated. It is attributed to light enhancement in near field through the particles.

Fabrication of Hexagonally Arrayed Nanoholes Using Femtosecond Laser Pulse Ablation with Template of Subwavelength Polystyrene Particle Array

We present nanohole array fabrication on a silicon substrate using a femtosecond laser pulse at 820 nm and 100 fs, and a subwavelength polystyrene (PS) particle array as a template. Nanohole array fabrication uses a particle field enhancement effect and two-dimensional (2-D) arrayed PS nanoparticles deposited on a (100) silicon (Si) substrate. PS spheres 200, 450, and 820 nm in diameter are used. The fabricated nanohole profiles in terms of the particle diameter and irradiated laser fluence are investigated. The nanohole diameter and depth become larger and deeper, respectively, as the diameter of the particles used or the irradiated laser fluence is increased. Light intensity enhancement by the particles is obtained experimentally by comparing ablation rates of the Si substrate with and without particles. The enhanced light intensity between a PS particle and a Si substrate is also calculated by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The calculated optical enhancement factor is consistent with the experimental value.

Fabrication of nanohole array on Si using self-organized porous alumina mask

Formation of the ordered array of nanoholes on Si was investigated by the use of the self-organized porous alumina nanoholes array etching mask that is directly formed on the Si substrate by sputtering and subsequent anodic oxidation. Reactive ion etching using chlorine plasma against a porous alumina/thin-SiO2(10 nm)/Si substrate with a high self-bias of rf plasma was revealed to be very effective for pattern transfer to Si. After pattern transference a significant reduction of hole size was observed. In fact, the initial porous alumina hole size of 45 nm is reduced to 13 nm Si holes when the higher aspect ratio of porous alumina nanoholes mask is used. The etching characteristics strongly suggest that not only chemical etching but sputtering occurred, and that redeposition of nonvolatile materials in nanoholes plays an essential role in the reduction of the hole size.