All-dielectric nanophotonics: the quest for better materials and fabrication techniques

Abstract

All-dielectric nanophotonics is an exciting and rapidly developing area of nanooptics which utilizes the resonant behavior of high-index low-loss dielectric nanoparticles for enhancing light-matter interaction on the nanoscale. When experimental implementation of a specific all-dielectric nanostructure is an issue, two crucial factors have to be in focus: the choice of a high-index material and a fabrication method. The degree to which various effects can be enhanced relies on the dielectric response of the chosen material as well as the fabrication accuracy. Here, we make an overview of available high-index materials and existing fabrication techniques for the realization of all-dielectric nanostructures. We compare performance of the chosen materials in the visible and IR spectral ranges in terms of scattering efficiencies and Q-factors. Various fabrication methods of all-dielectric nanostructures are further discussed, and their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted. We also present an outlook for the search of better materials with higher refractive indices and novel fabrication methods enabling low-cost manufacturing of optically resonant high-index nanoparticles. We hope that our results will be valuable for researches across the whole field of nanophotonics and particularly for the design of all-dielectric nanostructures.

Spectrally Tailored Light‐Matter Interaction in Lithography‐Free Functional Nanomaterials

“…In some way, the search for alternative HRI materials can be compared with that for alternative plasmonic materials. This search started a few years ago with a focus on HRI Mie resonators …”

Active Nanophotonics

“…Another way to get around the significant loss in plasmonic materials is to replace metallic components of nanophotonic devices by high-index dielectric nanoparticles (NPs), made of, e.g., silicon (Si), germanium (Gi), GaP [32], [33], [42]- [44], [34]- [41], or halide perovskites [45] (hereinafter we define as "dielectric" a material with small conductivity at optical frequencies, i.e., 3 this definition includes semiconductors). It has been demonstrated that such dielectric NPs and nanostructures provide lower dissipative losses along with a moderate light localization at the nanoscale.…”

Enhancement of Raman scattering in dielectric nanostructures with electric and magnetic Mie resonances

“…Semiconductors, which are often considered as the main materials for all-dielectric photonics [18] have strong inherent Raman response due to their crystalline lattice structure. In particular, crystalline silicon (Si) has a sharp Raman line around 520 cm −1 [19], caused by the interaction of light with optical phonons.…”