Soft Nano‐Imprint Lithography of Rare‐Earth‐Doped Light‐Emitting Photonic Metasurface

Abstract

Sol–gel chemistry and nano‐imprint lithography (soft‐NIL) can be combined for the fabrication of nano‐patterns with large vertical aspect ratio over large scales. The possibility to frame via soft‐NIL metal oxides materials featuring a large refractive index and low absorption coefficient, opens new avenues for light management. In spite of its importance, the integration of light emitters in these materials has been mostly investigated in flat layers, limiting their efficiency and versatility. Here it is shown that ZrO2 can be combined with light emitting Eu3+ ions and framed via soft‐NIL to form large arrays of pillars atop a 2D residual layer. The chemical precursor solutions and the nano‐imprint technique are developed for photonic metasurfaces sustaining sharp resonances ascribed to quasi‐guided modes and lattice modes, as accounted for by finite difference time domains simulations. These resonances enable for a record extraction of the Eu3+ forward emission up to ≈200 times with respect to the flat counterpart within a relatively small detection angle (≈ ±16° around the vertical direction). These results are relevant for light‐emitting displays, down‐ and up‐conversion processes for light detection such as scintillators for X‐ray and for light amplifiers based on rare‐earth emitters.

Facile and Rapid Microcontact Printing of Additive-Free Polydimethylsiloxane for Biological Patterning Diversity

“…The result of the time reduction indicated an apparent time-saving property compared to the previous printing performances (commonly 30 min to 2.5 h, Table S1). ,− ,, This PDMS micropatterning method is also different from the remarkable soft nanoimprint lithography, which needs more time (30 min to 24 h) and higher temperatures (150–500 °C) for fabricating nanoscale surface topography. − …”

Chemically amplified molecular resins for shrinkage-controlled direct nanoimprint lithography of functional oxides: an application towards dark-light dual-mode antibacterial surfaces

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] While polymeric materials have predominantly been used in these techniques, there has been a recent surge in the direct fabrication of functional inorganic nanomaterials. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] In particular, direct nanoimprinting of metal oxides has emerged as an attractive avenue owing to their wide-ranging applications. 13,[26][27][28][29] Notably, a unique characteristic of metal oxide nanoimprinting is the shrinkage of feature size in the final patterned structures, primarily influenced by the total metal content in the resin or ink.…”

Spin-Selective Angular Dispersion Control in Dielectric Metasurfaces for Multichannel Meta-Holographic Displays

“…Multichannel and angle-multiplexed holograms recently emerged as a potential solution for numerous practical applications such as 3D displays, enhanced medical imaging, and unobtrusive and intuitive ways to present information in head-up displays. , Utilizing meta-optics to generate angle-multiplexed holograms for such applications can provide a highly efficient and compact solution. − Metasurfaces, the planar version of metamaterials, empower the unprecedented ability of efficient wavefront manipulation and integration with on-chip optical devices. − Owing to such exceptional control of electromagnetic (EM) waves at a miniaturized scale, various metasurfaces-based applications have been demonstrated, including metalenses, − spin-selective polarizers, structured beam generators, nanoprinting, − high-resolution holography, − and programmable metasurfaces. − Additionally, multiple pieces of information can be integrated into a single metasurface to introduce multifunctionality without increasing the design complexity and overall size of the meta-device. Consequently, metasurfaces for multiplexing the different channels of orbital angular momentum − and full dimensional control on the polarization of incident light with dual propagation direction − have been extensively explored for advanced meta-optics.…”