Abstract
Microsphere Photolithography (MPL) is a nanopatterning technique that utilizes a self-assembled monolayer of microspheres as an optical element to focus incident radiation inside a layer of photoresist. The microspheres produces a sub-diffraction limited photonic-jet on the opposite side of each microsphere from the illumination. When combined with pattern transfer techniques such as etching/lift-off, MPL provides a versatile, low-cost fabrication method for producing hexagonal close-packed metasurfaces. This article investigates the MPL process for creating refractive index (RI) sensors on the cleaved tips of optical fiber. The resonant wavelength of metal elements on the surface is dependent on the local dielectric environment and allows the refractive index of an analyte to be resolved spectrally. A numerical study of hole arrays defined in metal films shows that the waveguide mode provides good sensitivity to the analyte refractive index. This can be readily tuned by adjusting the MPL exposure and the simulation results guide the fabrication of a defect tolerant refractive index sensor on the tip of a fiber tip with a sensitivity of 613 nm/RIU. The conformal nature of the microsphere monolayer simplifies the fabrication process and provides a viable alternative to direct-write techniques such as Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milling.
Recommended Citation
I. Jasim et al., "Microsphere Photolithography Patterned Nanohole Array on an Optical Fiber," IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 32627 - 32633, article no. 3059439, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Jan 2021.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3059439
Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Center/Lab(s)
Intelligent Systems Center
Keywords and Phrases
Fiber Tip; Microsphere Photolithography; Refractive Index
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2169-3536
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2021 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2021
Comments
This work was supported in part by the Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AOI), and in part by the NSF Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) under Grant 1653792.