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Inkjet-Printed Nanocavities on a Photonic Crystal Template

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Brossard, SF 
Pecunia, V 
Ramsay, AJ 
Griffiths, JP 
Hugues, M 

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed the rapid development of inkjet printing as an attractive bottom-up microfabrication technology due to its simplicity and potentially low cost. The wealth of printable materials has been key to its widespread adoption in organic optoelectronics and biotechnology. However, its implementation in nanophotonics has so far been limited by the coarse resolution of conventional inkjet-printing methods. In addition, the low refractive index of organic materials prevents the use of “soft-photonics” in applications where strong light confinement is required. This study introduces a hybrid approach for creating and fine tuning high-Q nanocavities, involving the local deposition of an organic ink on the surface of an inorganic 2D photonic crystal template using a commercially available high-resolution inkjet printer. The controllability of this approach is demonstrated by tuning the resonance of the printed nanocavities by the number of printer passes and by the fabrication of photonic crystal molecules with controllable splitting. The versatility of this method is evidenced by the realization of nanocavities obtained by surface deposition on a blank photonic crystal. A new method for a free-form, high-density, material-independent, and high-throughput fabrication technique is thus established with a manifold of opportunities in photonic applications.

Description

Keywords

femtoliter inkjet printing, hybrid optical nanocavities, photonic crystals, photonic molecules

Journal Title

Advanced Materials

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0935-9648
1521-4095

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K03099X/1)
Part of this work was performed using the Darwin Supercomputer of the University of Cambridge High Performance Computing Service (http://www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/), provided by Dell Inc. using Strategic Research Infrastructure Funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. V.P. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large Area Electronics (CIMLAE, program grant EP/K03099X/1) and the project Integration of Printed Electronics with Silicon for Smart sensor systems (iPESS). V.P. also acknowledges financial support from the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology.