Daniel Shir graduated with distinction and obtained a B.S. degree in materials science and engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2005. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign under Professor John A. Rogers's guidance. Yun-Suk Nam obtained a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2004. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign. Seokwoo Jeon was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1975. He received his B.S. degree in 2000 and his master's degree with Professor Shinhoo Kang from Seoul National University in 2003 after one year as an exchange graduate student with Professor Paul V. Braun at the University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign (UIUC). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering at UIUC under the direction of Professor John A. Rogers. His research interests include soft lithography, 3D nanopatterning, microfluidic systems, and optically functional materials and devices. John A. Rogers obtained B.A. and B.S. degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received S.M. degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and the Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry in 1995.

Recently developed classes of monocrystalline silicon solar microcells can be assembled into modules with characteristics (i.e., mechanically flexible forms, compact concentrator designs, and high-voltage outputs) that would be impossible to achieve using conventional, wafer-based approaches. This paper presents experimental and computational studies of the optics of light absorption in ultrathin microcells that include nanoscale features of relief on their surfaces, formed by soft imprint lithography. Measurements on working devices with designs optimized for broad band trapping of incident light indicate good efficiencies in energy production even at thicknesses of just a few micrometers. These outcomes are relevant not only to the microcell technology described here but also to other photovoltaic systems that benefit from thin construction and efficient materials utilization.

Silicon nanowires have received attention for nanoscale electronic devices and chemical and biological sensors. The thermal oxide grown on the silicon nanowires could be used in a variety of devices, so the oxidation of the silicon nanowires is investigated in this work. Silicon nanowires with an average radius of 37nm were grown for these experiments using the vapor-liquid-solid technique with Au to mediate the growth. Etching of the Au tips from the silicon nanowires was performed prior to oxidation to avoid local accelerated oxidation at the nanowire tip. Oxidation was performed at 700°C for 1–121h and at 650 and 750°C for 4h in O2, and the oxidized nanowires were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Depending on the conditions for oxidation, an oxide shell as thin as 6nm was observed, or the entire nanowire was oxidized. The kinetics of oxidation differ from those of a planar silicon wafer and are discussed in this work.

This paper introduces approaches that combine micro/nanomolding, or nanoimprinting, techniques with proximity optical phase mask lithographic methods to form three dimensional (3D) nanostructures in thick, transparent layers of photopolymers. The results demonstrate three strategies of this type, where molded relief structures in these photopolymers represent (i) fine (<1 microm) features that serve as the phase masks for their own exposure, (ii) coarse features (>1 microm) that are used with phase masks to provide access to large structure dimensions, and (iii) fine structures that are used together phase masks to achieve large, multilevel phase modulations. Several examples are provided, together with optical modeling of the fabrication process and the transmission properties of certain of the fabricated structures. These approaches provide capabilities in 3D fabrication that complement those of other techniques, with potential applications in photonics, microfluidics, drug delivery and other areas.

We report the performance and characterization of a material based on poly[(3-mercaptopropyl)methylsiloxane] (PMMS) in various soft lithography applications. PMMS stamps were made by cross-linking with triallyl cyanurate and ethoxylated (4) bisphenol A dimethacrylate via thiol−ene mixed-mode chemistry. The surface chemistry of the materials was characterized by XPS when varied from hydrophilic through oxygen plasma treatment, to hydrophobic by exposure to a fluorinated trichlorosilane agent. The materials are transparent above 300 nm and thermally stable up to 225 °C, thus rendering them capable to be employed in step-and-flash imprint lithography, nanoimprint lithography, nanotransfer printing, and proximity-field nanopatterning. The successful pattern replication from the micrometer to sub-100 nm scale was demonstrated.

This Feature Article reviews recent work on an optical technique for fabricating, in a single exposure step, three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures with diverse structural layouts. The approach, which we refer to as proximity field nanopatterning, uses conformable, elastomeric phase masks to pattern thick layers of transparent, photosensitive materials in a conformal contact mode geometry. Aspects of the optics, the materials, and the physical chemistry associated with this method are outlined. A range of 3D structures illustrate its capabilities, and several application examples demonstrate possible areas of use in technologies ranging from microfluidics to photonic materials to density gradient structures for chemical release and high-energy density science.

Plasmonic sensors have been used for a wide-range of biological and chemical sensing applications. Emerging nano-fabrication techniques have enabled these sensors to be cost-effectively mass-manufactured onto various types of substrates. To accompany these advances, major improvements in sensor read-out devices must also be achieved to fully realize the broad impact of plasmonic nano-sensors. Here, we propose a machine learning framework which can be used to design low-cost and mobile multi-spectral plasmonic readers that do not use traditionally employed bulky and expensive stabilized light-sources or high-resolution spectrometers. By training a feature selection model over a large set of fabricated plasmonic nano-sensors, we select the optimal set of illumination light-emitting-diodes needed to create a minimum-error refractive index prediction model, which statistically takes into account the varied spectral responses and fabrication-induced variability of a given sensor design. This computational sensing approach was experimentally validated using a modular mobile plasmonic reader. We tested different plasmonic sensors with hexagonal and square periodicity nano-hole arrays, and revealed that the optimal illumination bands differ from those that are ‘intuitively’ selected based on the spectral features of the sensor, e.g., transmission peaks or valleys. This framework provides a universal tool for the plasmonics community to design low-cost and mobile multi-spectral readers, helping the translation of nano-sensing technologies to various emerging applications such as wearable sensing, personalized medicine, and point-of-care diagnostics. Beyond plasmonics, other types of sensors that operate based on spectral changes can broadly benefit from this approach, including e.g., aptamer-enabled nanoparticle assays and graphene-based sensors, among others.

Smartphone fluorescence microscopy has various applications in point-of-care (POC) testing and diagnostics, ranging from e.g., quantification of immunoassays, detection of microorganisms, to sensing of viruses. An important need in smartphone-based microscopy and sensing techniques is to improve the detection sensitivity to enable quantification of extremely low concentrations of target molecules. Here, we demonstrate a general strategy to enhance the detection sensitivity of a smartphone-based fluorescence microscope by using surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) created by a thin metal-film. In this plasmonic design, the samples are placed on a silver-coated glass slide with a thin spacer, and excited by a laser-diode from the backside through a glass hemisphere, generating surface plasmon polaritons. We optimized this mobile SEF system by tuning the metal-film thickness, spacer distance, excitation angle and polarization, and achieved ~10-fold enhancement in fluorescence intensity compared to a bare glass substrate, which enabled us to image single fluorescent particles as small as 50 nm in diameter and single quantum-dots. Furthermore, we quantified the detection limit of this platform by using DNA origami-based brightness standards, demonstrating that ~80 fluorophores per diffraction-limited spot can be readily detected by our mobile microscope, which opens up new opportunities for POC diagnostics and sensing applications in resource-limited-settings.