Controlling the Size and Pattern Pitch of Ni(OH)2 Nanoclusters Using Dip-Pen Nanolithography to Improve Water Oxidation.

We use dip-pen nanolithography to accurately pattern Ni(OH)2 nanoclusters on a metachemical surface with an exceptionally large surface area. The distance between the nanoclusters can be manipulated to control the oxygen-evolution reaction current and overpotential, thereby improving the efficiency of the water-splitting process while using minute amounts of the catalyst.

Upmost efficiency, few-micron-sized midwave infrared HgCdTe photodetectors.

Resonant cavity-assisted enhancement of optical absorption was a photodetector designing concept emerging about two and half decades ago that responded to the challenge of thinning the photoactive layer while outperforming the efficiency of the monolithic photodetector. However, for many relevant materials, meeting that challenge with such a design unrealistically requires many layer deposition steps, so that the efficiency at goal hardly becomes attainable because of inevitable fabrication faults. Under this circumstance, we suggest a new approach for designing photodetectors with an absorber layer as thin as those in respective resonant cavity-enhanced ones, but concurrently, the overall detector thickness would be much thinner and top-performing. The proposed structures also contain the cavity-absorber arrangement but enclose the cavity by two dielectric one-dimensional grating-on-layer structures with the same grating pitch, instead of the distributed Bragg reflectors typical of the resonant cavity enhancement approach. By a design based on in-house software, the theoretical feasibility of such ∼7.0-8.5 µm thick structures with ∼100% efficiency for a linearly polarized (TE or TM) mid-infrared range radiation is demonstrated. Moreover, the tolerances of the designed structures' performance against the gratings' fabrication errors are tested, and fair manufacturing tolerance while still maintaining high peak efficiency along with a small deviation of its spectral position off initially predefined central-design wavelength is proved. In addition, the electromagnetic fields amplitudes and Poynting vector over the cavity-absorber area are visualized. As a result, it is inferred that the electromagnetic fields' confinement in the designed structure, which is a key to their upmost efficiency, is two-dimensional, combining in-depth vertical resonant-cavity-like confinement with the lateral microcavity like one set by the presence of gratings.

Upmost efficiency, few-micron-sized midwave infrared HgCdTe photodetectors: erratum.

This erratum corrects errors in Applied Optics58, F1 (2019).

Development of Meta-Chemical Surface by Dip-Pen Nanolithography for Precise Electrochemical Lead Sensing.

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is a powerful and unique technique for precisely depositing tiny nano-spherical cap shapes (nanoclusters) onto a desired surface. In this study, a meta-chemical surface (MCS; a pattern with advanced features) is developed by DPN and applied to electrochemical lead sensing, yielding a calibration curve in the ppb range. An ink mixture of PMMA and NTPH (which binds to Pb (II), as supported by DFT calculations) is patterned over a Pt surface. The average height of the nanoclusters is ≈13 nm with a high surface area-to-volume ratio, which depends on the ink composition and the MCS surface. This ratio affected the sensitivity of the MCS as a detecting tool. The results indicate that the sensor's features can be controlled by the ability to control the size of the nanoclusters, attributed to the unique properties of the DPN production method. These results are significant for the water-source purification industry.

Enhanced Optical Confinement Enriching the Power Conversion Efficiency of Integrated 3D Grating Organic Solar Cell.

In this paper, we examine the impact of three-dimensional grating layers embedded at selected locations in an organic solar cell structure to obtain enhanced efficiency. The design, simulations, and optimizations were carried out using an in-house tool based on the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) method developed on the MATLAB R2019a platform. An optimal organic solar cell structure design with a top grating layer exhibited an increase of 7.47% in the short-circuit current density compared to an organic solar cell structure with a smooth top layer. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) increase was mainly due to increased light confinement in the thin absorbing layer. Adding an embedded grating layer in the absorption layer resulted in a significant increase in the absorptance spectral bandwidth, where the short-circuit current density increased by 10.88%. In addition, the grating cells yielded a substantial improvement in the cell's conical absorptance since the existence of a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) in the back metal gratings increases the confinement properties. Further, the effect of a pyramid-shaped embedded grating array was a slight improvement in the PCE compared to the rectangular-shaped grating arrays. We showed that a pyramid-grating can act as a nano black-body layer, increasing the absorption for a wide range of azimuthal and polar incident angles.

Chalcogenide-based, all-dielectric, ultrathin metamaterials with perfect, incidence-angle sensitive, mid-infrared absorption: inverse design, analysis, and applications.

The demand for miniature, low-cost, utmost efficient optical absorbers triggered ongoing research efforts to minimize the overall design thickness, particularly the photo-active layer, while still maintaining a high optical absorptance. In this study, we present all-dielectric nanophotonic metamaterials of optimized, fabrication compatible and tolerant, architecture for perfect mid-wave infrared absorptance. Overall sub-vacuum-wavelength thick designs are intended to couple and confine light inside an ultrathin 100 nm PbTe photo-absorbing film. Three application-oriented structures, with dimensions inversely designed to provide diverse requirements, are introduced: a two-dimensional metasurface embedded design for unpolarised wide-band absorption and two, one-dimensional metasurface embedded designs for s-polarised wide-band and non-polarised narrow-band absorption. A comprehensive study of the structures' spectral absorptance under normal- and oblique-incidence irradiation is performed. The conical-mounting absorptance analysis elucidates that the high absorption can be continuously spectrally tuned with the azimuthal component of the incidence angle. To the best of our knowledge, this property is discussed for the first time for all-dielectric metamaterials. Also, the ranges of geometrical tuning of the peak absorptance are investigated in detail, and usage of another prospective semiconductor absorber is explored. To unfold the mutual, and essentially different, physical mechanisms that fuel the perfect absorptance, an elaborated analysis is presented. The electromagnetic power transport, portrayed by the Poynting vector, displays three-dimensional singular flows around points, such as vorticity centers, saddles, sinks, and spirals. The potential mid-infrared applications which can benefit from the peculiar properties of the designed structures, such as spectroscopy, sensing, thermal radiation manipulations, and communication, are also discussed.

Ultrathin high efficiency photodetectors based on subwavelength grating and near-field enhanced absorption.

Optical absorbers, comprising a thin semiconductor layer placed between two transparent ones in close proximity to a subwavelength grating, are considered. With no back mirror, these structures only mimic the resonant cavity enhanced photodetector, being an order of magnitude thinner. It is argued that the grating can assist the light confinement by near field microcavity resonance rather than by far field mirroring. Tolerant designs to attain nearly 100% optical absorption at a predefined wavelength are demonstrated, and the near-field enhancement of the absorption is confirmed. The results obtained indicate that the proposed near field enhanced photodetectors meet the combined challenges of significantly increasing the efficiency and reducing the complexity and size of the entire device as compared to the resonant cavity enhanced photodetectors, which may be useful for integrated multi-detector arrays.