Plasmonic field guided patterning of ordered colloidal nanostructures

• Main Authors: Huang Xiaoping, Chen Kai, Qi Mingxi, Zhang Peifeng, Li Yu, Winnerl Stephan, Schneider Harald, Yang Yuanjie, Zhang Shuang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 2019-02-01
• Series: Nanophotonics
• Subjects: ordered colloidal nanostructures; plasmonic field guided patterning; polarization stabilizing
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2018-0211

Nano-patterned colloidal plasmonic metasurfaces are capable of manipulation of light at the subwavelength scale. However, achieving controllable lithography-free nano-patterning for colloidal metasurfaces still remains a major challenge, limiting their full potential in building advanced plasmonic devices. Here, we demonstrate plasmonic field guided patterning (PFGP) of ordered colloidal metallic nano-patterns using orthogonal laser standing evanescent wave (LSEW) fields. We achieved colloidal silver nano-patterns with a large area of 30 mm2 in <10 min by using orthogonal LSEW fields with a non-focused ultralow fluence irradiation of 0.25 W cm−2. The underlying mechanism of the formation of the nano-patterns is the light-induced polarization of the nanoparticles (NPs), which leads to a dipole-dipole interaction for stabilizing the nano-pattern formation, as confirmed by polarization-dependent surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. This optical field-directed self-assembly of NPs opens an avenue for designing and fabricating reconfigurable colloidal nano-patterned metasurfaces in large areas.