Thin Patterned Lithium Niobate Films by Parallel Additive Capillary Stamping of Aqueous Precursor Solutions

Abstract

Thin micropatterned lithium niobate (LiNbO3) layers may be used for photonic components, actuators, and data storage devices because LiNbO3 exhibits nonlinear optical properties as well as anisotropic polarizability and ferroelectric behavior. Commonly, thin micropatterned LiNbO3 layers are integrated into device architectures by complex manufacturing algorithms including direct wafer bonding, mechanochemical wafer thinning or mechanical cleavage of thin LiNbO3 layers from bulk LiNbO3 crystals, as well as lithographic pattering of and/or pattern transfer into the thin LiNbO3 layers. The high‐throughput generation of thin microstructured LiNbO3 layers by parallel additive capillary stamping of environmentally friendly aqueous LiNbO3 precursor solutions with topographically patterned porous polymer stamps is reported. The precursor solutions contain the cheap, commercially available compounds lithium acetate and niobium oxalate hydrate, which are simply dissolved in water as received. In this way, rough surfaces not suitable for layer transfer methods involving direct wafer bonding, such as the surfaces of indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates, are functionalized with microstructured LiNbO3 layers. Microstructured holey 100 nm‐thick LiNbO3 films showing uniform second‐harmonic generation (SHG) except at the positions of the holes are obtained. Orthogonal substrate formation is demonstrated by electrodeposition of gold into the holes, which increases the SHG output 5.4 times.

Sol–Gel Barium Titanate Nanohole Array as a Nonlinear Metasurface and a Photonic Crystal

“…[ 21 ] Lithium niobate nanohole arrays have been made by capillary imprinting an aqueous sol–gel and the authors observed SHG enhancement when combined with gold particles. [ 22 ] Effective electric field confinement in nanoimprinted polycrystalline PhC has shown to enable quasi‐CW lasing in metal halide perovskite, but similar increased light‐matter interaction has not been shown in bottom‐up fabricated nonlinear metal‐oxide structures. [ 23 ] Sol–gel derived BTO 2D PhC formed a photonic bandgap [ 24 ] and while the investigation of this solution derived metal‐oxide's electro‐optic properties established a competitive value with thin film lithium niobate, [ 21 ] the optical nonlinear properties are still largely unexplored.…”

Solvent-Free High-Temperature Capillary Stamping of Stimuli-Responsive Polymers: Wettability Management by Orthogonal Substrate Functionalization

“…Patterns of discrete stimuli-responsive polymer microdots may have additional advantages over continuous coatings such as suppression of crack propagation and delamination. Moreover, the substrate properties may be customized by orthogonal functionalization of the substrate areas between the microdots. , …”

Reactive Additive Capillary Stamping with Double Network Hydrogel-Derived Aerogel Stamps under Solvothermal Conditions

“…Capillary stamping with DNHG-derived aerogel stamps combined with a solvothermal synthesis based on ethanolic solutions of iron­(III)-acetylacetonate [Fe­(C 5 H 7 O 2 ) 3 ] and nickel­(II)-acetylacetonate (C 10 H 14 NiO 4 ) , yielded arrays of submicron nickel ferrite dots on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. Then, the ITO substrates functionalized with ordered monolayers of submicron nickel ferrite dots were orthogonally functionalized with metallic nickel by electrodeposition. The superparamagnetic submicron nickel ferrite dots embedded into the thin ferromagnetic nickel film halved the magnetic remanence of the latter, while the saturation value of the magnetic moment per area remained by and large unaffected.…”