Optical inspection of manufactured nanohole arrays to bridge the lab-industry gap

Abstract

Metallic nanohole arrays have shown their potential as sensing tools. Important research supported by sophisticated laboratory experiments have been recently carried out, that may help to develop practical devices to be implemented in the real life. To get this goal, the gap between industry and technology at the nanoscale level must be overcome. One of the major drawbacks is the quality inspection of the manufactured nanostructured surfaces to ensure a reliable sensing. In this paper we introduce an optical method, based on the Extraordinary Optical Transmission phenomenon, for an inspection of such surfaces at industrial level. Unlike usual techniques like SEM, our method gives at the same time, a quick map of the surface homogeneity together with its local plasmonic performance. Our results show that this method is reproducible and reliable as to give a "seal of identification" and quality guarantee of the manufactured surface as basic element of a sensing device.

Plasmonic Sensing on Symmetric Nanohole Arrays Supporting High-Q Hybrid Modes and Reflection Geometry

“…Unlike the typical surface morphology characterization tools, such as SEM or atomic force microscopy (AFM), this technique should be also capable of mapping the optical response across the nanohole patterned area. Such optical inspection techniques based on spectroscopic transmission of light through a microscope objective have been recently demonstrated on nanohole arrays with a similar geometry as this work . This technique can be applied also to our platform.…”

“…Such optical inspection techniques based on spectroscopic transmission of light through a microscope objective have been recently demonstrated on nanohole arrays with a similar geometry as this work. 49 This technique can be applied also to our platform. However, due to the high angular sensitivity of the plasmon-resonance-related spectral dips, it is necessary to illuminate the RI-symmetric array with a beam of a narrow angular span, e.g., using a wide-field illumination configuration of the microscope.…”

Applications of Hybrid Metal‐Dielectric Nanostructures: State of the Art

“…This resonant behavior generates strong enhancements of the electric field (hot spots) in the proximity (near-field regime) of the metallic structure. Both enhancement and confinement effects find applications in many different areas, [1] like sensing (contamination, biomedicine), [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] material analysis-like SERS, [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), [55,56] surface enhanced fluorescence scattering (SEFS), [57][58][59][60][61] nonlinear optics, [62][63][64] absorption spectroscopy, [44,65,66] solar cells [67,…”

“…This resonant behavior generates strong enhancements of the electric field (hot spots) in the proximity (near‐field regime) of the metallic structure. Both enhancement and confinement effects find applications in many different areas, [ 1 ] like sensing (contamination, biomedicine), [ 23–36 ] material analysis—like SERS, [ 37–54 ] Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), [ 55,56 ] surface enhanced fluorescence scattering (SEFS), [ 57–61 ] nonlinear optics, [ 62–64 ] absorption spectroscopy, [ 44,65,66 ] solar cells [ 67,68 ] ), or optical communications. [ 47,69–71 ] To enhance the intensity of the electric field, aggregates of NPs, particularly dimers, two particles separated by a nanogap, or bow tie antennas have been suggested.…”

Nanolasers Incorporating CoxGa0.6–xZnSe0.4 Nanoparticle Arrays with Wavelength Tunability at Room Temperature

“…Nanomaterials with different structure such as rods, rings, tubes, and holes have been extensively developed due to their particular properties, which is of great interest for low-power consumption devices, biosensors, , optical filters, quantum memory, energy harvesting, photonic applications, photodetectors, − and laser emission . The microcavities with array structure are key factors for emitting nanolaser.…”