Microphotonic parabolic light directors fabricated by two-photon lithography

Abstract

We have fabricated microphotonic parabolic light directors using two-photon lithography, thin-film processing, and aperture formation by focused ion beam lithography. Optical transmission measurements through upright parabolic directors 22 μm high and 10 μm in diameter exhibit strong beam directivity with a beam divergence of 5.6°, in reasonable agreement with ray-tracing and full-field electromagnetic simulations. The results indicate the suitability of microphotonic parabolic light directors for producing collimated beams for applications in advanced solar cell and light-emitting diode designs.

Highly efficient GaAs solar cells by limiting light emission angle

“…18 To prepare the sample for writing, optical coupling fluid was placed on one side of a glass slide, and IP-L placed on the other. After writing, development in 2-propanol for 20 min, which removes all unwritten IP-L and the optical coupling fluid, was followed by drying of the glass slide.…”

Rapid Prototyping across the Spectrum: RF to Optical 3D Electromagnetic Structures

“…While compound parabolic concentrators have been demonstrated at the macroscale, this demonstration showed the efficacy of the fabrication method as well as the device at a microscale using arrays of concentrators built on top of solid-state photonic devices. The collimation properties of these structures could be used in controlling emission from light-emitting diodes or even to improve the collection efficiency of solar cells/detectors [104]. Both complex media and devices discussed above exploited the advantages of additive manufacturing processes to directly build their constituent structures.…”

“…We begin our discussion with 3D photonic crystals [100,101] which have garnered much attention in recent years due to their potential application to develop thresholdless semiconductor lasers, singlemode light-emitting diodes, ultra-compact low loss waveguides for high speed information processing, etc. [102,103] The biggest challenge in the development of these devices is the precise fabrication required to build them which demands precise structural control in three dimensions [104][105][106]. Two-photon lithography has been used to develop masks with conformable elements [99] and molded reliefs that allow for nanopatterning by close contact exposures using near fields [107,108].…”

3D Printers for the Fabrication of Micro‐Optical Elements

“…Conversely, light emission from LEDs or VCSELs can be made more efficient by placing 3D optical components on top to enhance and shape the emission characteristics. Nanoscribe customers from the California Institute of Technology have fabricated free-form compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) for beam collimation by 2PP to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept [3].…”