Several fabrication techniques are recently used to produce a nanopattern for sensing, as focused ion beam milling (FIB), e-beam lithography (EBL), nanoimprinting, and soft lithography. Here, interference lithography is explored for the fabrication of large area nanohole arrays in metal films as an efficient, flexible, and scalable production method. The transmission spectra in air of the 1 cm2 substrate were evaluated to study the substrate behavior when hole-size, periodicity, and film thickness are varied, in order to elucidate the best sample for the most effective sensing performance. The efficiency of the nanohole array was tested for bulk sensing and compared with other platforms found in the literature. The sensitivity of ~1000 nm/RIU, achieved with an array periodicity in the visible range, exceeds near infrared (NIR) performances previously reported, and demonstrates that interference lithography is one of the best alternative to other expensive and time-consuming nanofabrication methods.

No abstract

An experimental investigation on how the bulk and surface sensitivities of gold nanohole arrays fabricated by interference lithography affect the degree of white light beam collimation is presented. The optical transmission response of nanohole arrays has been recorded by focused and collimated beam transmission spectra. The results show that both the bulk and surface sensitivities for the collimated case are much larger than for the focused case. In particular, the shape of the spectra was dependent on the degree of beam collimation. The results showed that improved sensing performance (around 3.5 times) and higher figure of merit (around 4.4 times) can be obtained by simply adjusting the incident/collection experimental conditions in transmission measurements.

No abstract

No abstract

In this work, we report a method to improve the efficiency of the micromechanical cleavage technique to obtain few-layers graphene samples, from natural graphite flakes, which were previously submitted to two chemical treatment times with H 2 SO 4 (17 and 25 hours). After the chemical treatment times, Raman spectroscopy reveals a hydrogenation of the few-layer graphene samples, which were obtained from the treated graphite flakes. To analyze the hydrogenation of the samples, the G and 2D bands of the Raman spectra of the treated and untreated samples were analyzed and compared, as well as the I(2D)/I(G) ratio, revealing a p-doping on the treated samples when compared with the untreated samples. Our studies could be of great importance to obtain larger and greater amount of few-layer graphene samples.

No abstract

This paper presents a study about the dielectric constant r e , dielectric loss tangent tan ( ) g d and effective electrical conductivity e