Nanostructure fabrication using nanosphere lithography for photonics devices

We use the self-assembled polystyrene nanosphere monolayer pattern to replace photoresist mask for the fabrication of 2D nanostructures on various substrates. The optical properties of these artificial structures are measured and compared with theoretical calculation.

Two-dimensional (2D) periodic structures, including gratings and subwavelength structured (SWS) surface material, have been widely studied for photonic applications and plasmonics devices. These artificial materials typically consist of varying fraction of air and a base material and have controllable refractive indices. Such materials can certainly give optical designer more choices for creating novel structure and devices. For example, SWS surface have been used for antireflection coating [1]–[3], and 2D gratings have been used for wavelength multiplexing [4], [5]. Current fabrication technology mainly involves photolithography (PL) and electron-beam lithography (EBL). However, PL has limited resolution and cannot be used for sub-micron feature sizes. EBL and deep UV PL require expensive equipment and/or are very time-consuming.