Fabrication of plasmonic devices using femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer technique

Abstract

Using femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer techniques we have fabricated gold dots and nanoparticles on glass substrates, as well as nanobumps on gold thin film. The surface morphologies of these structures with different laser fluences and film thicknesses are investigated. We also study the focusing and defocusing properties of the nanofence-an arranged nanobump pattern-by the total-internal reflection microscope. Observations reveal that surface plasmon waves can be highly directed and focused via this nanofence pattern. Results are in good agreement with the simulation results using the finite-element method and demonstrate the potential applications of these nanophotonic devices. Furthermore, we utilize high laser energy to fabricate plasmonic waveguides, and also succeed in transferring the waveguides to another substrate. The attenuation rates of the light propagating in the waveguides are observed to achieve 0.31 dB μm(-1) and 0.48 dB μm(-1) on the target and receiver sides, respectively.

3D Nanophotonic device fabrication using discrete components

“…Several studies have focused on using LIT as a fabrication technique for plasmonic and metamaterial structures ( Figure 5) [44,45,50,65,70,[75][76][77]. Tseng et al used LIFT to print split-ring resonators from a solid phase multilayer donor film with a laser wavelength of 800 nm and pulse duration of 140 fs [70].…”

“…The triangular pixels were subsequently transferred to a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) receiver substrate using a femtosecond laser, ultimately resulting in spherical droplets due to the effects of surface tension after melting by the laser. In addition to split ring resonators, Tseng et al also fabricated gold plasmonic nanofences and plasmonic waveguides using LIFT [76]. The fabricated nanofences effectively focused and defocused surface plasmon polaritons, as demonstrated in Figure 5D/E.…”

Micron-scale copper wires printed using femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer with automated donor replenishment

“…Owing to its simplicity, LIFT has gained significant attention during the last decade [9][10][11] for printing of materials such as metals [12][13][14][15], superconductors [8], polymers [16], and biological substances such as DNA [17] and proteins [18]. LIFT transfer can occur via a range of physical phenomena that includes pressure build-up [19,20], melt-through [21] or the use of sacrificial layers [22], where the process depends on the desired end application and the nature of the donor material to be transferred.…”

Gold nanoparticle transfer through photothermal effects in a metamaterial absorber by nanosecond laser

“…The laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT), as one of the methods, has been extensively studied due to its ability to deposit nanostructures of diverse materials onto different receiver substrates101112131415161718192021222324. However, in previous works, femtosecond laser is typically utilised1011121314151617181920, while only a few of them are realised by nanosecond laser pulses21222324. Due to the high melting point of noble metals that are commonly used (bulk Au 1337K, bulk Ag 1235K, etc.…”

“…The reported threshold light fluences for metal transferring mostly varied from about 100 mJ/cm 2 to several J/cm 2 11121314151617181920212223, while for those with fluence under 100 mJ/cm 2 , fs-pulse laser is utilised10. Furthermore, only one nanoparticle (NP)12131415161718192021 or a few NPs without regular morphologies11 are transferred by one light shot in most previous reports. Large-scale transferring methods are rarely studied1023.…”