Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional optical elements composed of dense arrays of subwavelength optical antennas and afford on-demand manipulation of the basic properties of light waves. Following the pioneering works on active metasurfaces capable of modulating wave amplitude, there is now a growing interest to dynamically control other fundamental properties of light. Here, we present metasurfaces that facilitate electrical tuning of the reflection phase and polarization properties. To realize these devices, we leverage the properties of actively controlled plasmonic antennas and fundamental insights provided by coupled mode theory. Indium–tin–oxide is embedded into gap-plasmon resonator-antennas as it offers electrically tunable optical properties. By judiciously controlling the resonant properties of the antennas from under- to overcoupling regimes, we experimentally demonstrate tuning of the reflection phase over 180°. This work opens up new design strategies for active metasurfaces for displacement measurements and tunable waveplates.Keywords: electrical gating; Metasurface; phase control; polarization control;

CMOS compatible electrooptic plasmonic modulators are slated to be key components in chip-scale photonic circuits. In this work, we investigate detailed design and optimization protocols for electrooptic plasmonic modulators that are suitable for free-space coupling and on-chip integration. The metallic structures in the proposed devices offer simultaneous electric and optical functions. The resonance-enhanced nonlinear interaction and submicrometer-footprint of these devices meet the stringent requirements for future CMOS modulators, allowing for high-speed operation (>100 GHz) with a decent modulation depth (>3 dB) and moderate insertion loss (<3 dB) at a very low swing voltage (∼1 V) and power dissipation (∼1 fJ/bit). The realization of the proposed structures appears feasible with current materials and lithographic techniques.

Metasurfaces provide unprecedented control over light propagation by imparting local, space-variant phase changes on an incident electromagnetic wave. They can improve the performance of conventional optical elements and facilitate the creation of optical components with new functionalities and form factors. Here, we build on knowledge from shared aperture phased array antennas and Si-based gradient metasurfaces to realize various multifunctional metasurfaces capable of achieving multiple distinct functions within a single surface region. As a key point, we demonstrate that interleaving multiple optical elements can be accomplished without reducing the aperture of each subelement. Multifunctional optical elements constructed from Si-based gradient metasurface are realized, including axial and lateral multifocus geometric phase metasurface lenses. We further demonstrate multiwavelength color imaging with a high spatial resolution. Finally, optical imaging functionality with simultaneous color separation has been obtained by using multifunctional metasurfaces, which opens up new opportunities for the field of advanced imaging and display.Keywords: geometric phase; Metasurfaces; multifunctional optics; phased array antenna; spatial multiplexing;

In 1934, Wilhelm Woltersdorff demonstrated that the absorption of light in an ultrathin, freestanding film is fundamentally limited to 50%. He concluded that reaching this limit would require a film with a real-valued sheet resistance that is exactly equal to R = η/2 ≈ 188.5Ω/□, where is the impedance of free space. This condition can be closely approximated over a wide frequency range in metals that feature a large imaginary relative permittivity εr″, that is, a real-valued conductivity σ = ε0εr″ω. A thin, continuous sheet of semiconductor material does not facilitate such strong absorption as its complex-valued permittivity with both large real and imaginary components preclude effective impedance matching. In this work, we show how a semiconductor metafilm constructed from optically resonant semiconductor nanostructures can be created whose optical response mimics that of a metallic sheet. For this reason, the fundamental absorption limit mentioned above can also be reached with semiconductor materials, opening up new opportunities for the design of ultrathin optoelectronic and light harvesting devices.

The resonant properties of a plasmonic cavity are determined by the size of the cavity, the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) dispersion relationship, and the complex reflection coefficients of the cavity boundaries. In small wavelength-scale cavities, the phase propagation due to reflections from the cavity walls is of a similar magnitude to propagation due to traversing the cavity. Until now, this reflection phase has been inferred from measurements of the resonant frequencies of a cavity of known dispersion and length. In this work, we present a method for measuring the complex reflection coefficients of a truncation in a 1D surface plasmon waveguide using electron energy loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM EELS) and show that this insight can be used to engineer custom cavities with engineered reflecting boundaries, whose resonant wavelengths and internal mode density profiles can be analytically predicted given knowledge of the cavity dimensions and complex reflection coefficients of the boundaries.

We explore the shape-dependent light scattering properties of silicon (Si) nanoblocks and their physical origin. These high-refractive-index nanostructures are easily fabricated using planar fabrication technologies and support strong, leaky-mode resonances that enable light manipulation beyond the optical diffraction limit. Dark-field microscopy and a numerical modal analysis show that the nanoblocks can be viewed as truncated Si waveguides, and the waveguide dispersion strongly controls the resonant properties. This explains why the lowest-order transverse magnetic (TM01) mode resonance can be widely tuned over the entire visible wavelength range depending on the nanoblock length, whereas the wavelength-scale TM11 mode resonance does not change greatly. For sufficiently short lengths, the TM01 and TM11 modes can be made to spectrally overlap, and a substantial scattering efficiency, which is defined as the ratio of the scattering cross section to the physical cross section of the nanoblock, of ∼9.95, approaching the theoretical lowest-order single-channel scattering limit, is achievable. Control over the subwavelength-scale leaky-mode resonance allows Si nanoblocks to generate vivid structural color, manipulate forward and backward scattering, and act as excellent photonic artificial atoms for metasurfaces.

We demonstrate electrical control over coherent optical absorption in a graphene-based Salisbury screen consisting of a single layer of graphene placed in close proximity to a gold back reflector. The screen was designed to enhance light absorption at a target wavelength of 3.2 μm by using a 600 nm-thick, nonabsorbing silica spacer layer. An ionic gel layer placed on top of the screen was used to electrically gate the charge density in the graphene layer. Spectroscopic reflectance measurements were performed in situ as a function of gate bias. The changes in the reflectance spectra were analyzed using a Fresnel based transfer matrix model in which graphene was treated as an infinitesimally thin sheet with a conductivity given by the Kubo formula. The analysis reveals that a careful choice of the ionic gel layer thickness can lead to optical absorption enhancements of up to 5.5 times for the Salisbury screen compared to a suspended sheet of graphene. In addition to these absorption enhancements, we demonstrate very large electrically induced changes in the optical absorption of graphene of ∼3.3% per volt, the highest attained so far in a device that features an atomically thick active layer. This is attributable in part to the more effective gating achieved with the ion gel over the conventional dielectric back gates and partially by achieving a desirable coherent absorption effect linked to the presence of the thin ion gel that boosts the absorption by 40%.

We demonstrate coherent control over the optical response of a coupled plasmonic resonator by high-energy electron beam excitation. We spatially control the position of an electron beam on a gold dolmen and record the cathodoluminescence and electron energy loss spectra. By selective coherent excitation of the dolmen elements in the near field, we are able to manipulate modal amplitudes of bonding and antibonding eigenmodes. We employ a combination of CL and EELS to gain detailed insight in the power dissipation of these modes at the nanoscale as CL selectively probes the radiative response and EELS probes the combined effect of Ohmic dissipation and radiation.

The increased importance of plasmonic devices has prompted a sizable research activity directed toward the development of ultracompact and high-performance couplers. Here, we present a novel scheme for efficient, highly localized, and directional sourcing of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) that relies on the excitation of leaky mode optical resonances supported by high-refractive index, semiconductor nanowires. High coupling efficiencies are demonstrated via finite difference frequency domain simulations and experimentally by leakage radiation microscopy. This efficiency is quantified by means of a coupling cross section, the magnitude of which can exceed twice the geometric cross section of the nanowire by exploiting its leaky resonant modes. We provide intuition into why the SPP coupling via certain wire modes is more effective than others based on their symmetry properties. Furthermore, we provide an example showing that dielectric scatterers may perform as well as metallic scatterers in coupling to SPPs.

Planar metal–oxide–metal structures can serve as photodetectors that do not rely on the usual electron–hole pair generation in a semiconductor. Instead, absorbed light in one of the metals can produce a current of hot electrons when the incident photon energy exceeds the oxide barrier energy. Despite the desirable traits of convenient fabrication and room-temperature operation at zero bias of this type of device, the low power conversion efficiency has limited its use. Here, we demonstrate the benefits of reshaping one of the metallic contacts into a plasmonic stripe antenna. We use measurements of the voltage-dependence, spectral-dependence, stripe-width dependence, and polarization-dependence of the photocurrent to show that surface plasmon excitations can result in a favorable redistribution in the electric fields in the stripe that enhances the photocurrent. We also provide a theoretical model that quantifies the spectral photocurrent in terms of the electrical and optical properties of the junction. This model provides an accurate estimate of the bias dependence of the external quantum efficiency of different devices and shows that both the spatial and vectorial properties of the electric field distribution are important to its operation.

The implementation of solar fuel generation as a clean, terawatt-scale energy source is critically dependent on the development of high-performance, inexpensive photocatalysts. Many candidate materials, including for example α-Fe2O3 (hematite), suffer from very poor charge transport with minority carrier diffusion lengths that are significantly shorter (nanometer scale) than the absorption depth of light (micrometer scale near the band edge). As a result, most of the photoexcited carriers recombine rather than participate in water-splitting reactions. For this reason, there is a tremendous opportunity for photon management. Plasmon-resonant nanostructures have been employed to effectively enhance light absorption in the near-surface region of photocatalysts, but this approach suffers from intrinsic optical losses in the metal. Here, we circumvent this issue by driving optical resonances in the active photocatalyst material itself. We illustrate that judiciously nanopatterned photocatalysts support optical Mie and guided resonances capable of substantially enhancing the photocarrier generation rate within 10–20 nm from the water/photocatalyst interface.

Nanostructured metallic films have the potential to replace metal oxide films as transparent electrodes in optoelectronic devices. An ideal transparent electrode should possess a high, broadband, and polarization-independent transmittance. Conventional metallic gratings and grids with wavelength-scale periodicities, however, do not have all of these qualities. Furthermore, the transmission properties of a nanostructured electrode need to be assessed in the actual dielectric environment provided by a device, where a high-index semiconductor layer can reflect a substantial fraction of the incident light. Here we propose nanostructured aluminum electrodes with space-filling fractal geometries as alternatives to gratings and grids and experimentally demonstrate their superior optoelectronic performance through integration with Si photodetectors. As shown by polarization and spectrally resolved photocurrent measurements, devices with fractal electrodes exhibit both a broadband transmission and a flat polarization response that outperforms both square grids and linear gratings. Finally, we show the benefits of adding a thin silicon nitride film to the nanostructured electrodes to further reduce reflection.

We present omnidirectional near-unity absorption of light in an ultrathin planar semiconductor layer on a metal substrate. Using full-field simulations and a modal analysis, it is shown that more than 98% of the incident light energy can be absorbed in a mere 12 nm thick Ge layer on a Ag substrate at the wavelength of 625 nm over a wide range of angles (80% absorption up to 66° in the transverse magnetic and 67° in the transverse electric polarizations). The physical origin of such remarkable absorption properties is the coupling of incident light to the Brewster mode supported by the structure. The modal dispersion connects several critical coupling points in a dispersion diagram at which the absorption is unity and exhibits a virtually flat dispersion relation for both polarizations, resulting in omnidirectional, near-unity absorption. Potential applications of this simple, planar geometry such as photodetectors and solar cells made from various semiconductor materials are also discussed along with feasible charge-extracting structures and performance estimates.Keywords: critical coupling; optical absorption; perfect absorber; semiconductor; surface plasmon polariton

New plasmonic materials with tunable properties are in great need for nanophotonics and metamaterials applications. Here we present two-dimensional layered, metal chalcogenides as tunable metamaterials that feature both dielectric photonic and plasmonic modes across a wide spectral range from the infrared to ultraviolet. The anisotropic layered structure allows intercalation of organic molecules and metal atoms at the van der Waals gap of the host chalcogenide, presenting a chemical route to create heterostructures with molecular and atomic precision for photonic and plasmonic applications. This marks a departure from a lithographic method to create metamaterials. Monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope was used to first establish the presence of the dielectric photonic and plasmonic modes in M2E3 (M = Bi, Sb; E = Se, Te) nanoplates and to observe marked changes in these modes after chemical intercalation. We show that these modal properties can also be tuned effectively by more conventional methods such as thickness control and alloy composition of the nanoplates.

Semiconductor heterostructures play a vital role in photonics and electronics. They are typically realized by growing layers of different materials, complicating fabrication and limiting the number of unique heterojunctions on a wafer. In this Letter, we present single-material nanowires which behave exactly like traditional heterostructures. These pseudoheterostructures have electronic band profiles that are custom-designed at the nanoscale by strain engineering. Since the band profile depends only on the nanowire geometry with this approach, arbitrary band profiles can be individually tailored at the nanoscale using existing nanolithography. We report the first experimental observations of spatially confined, greatly enhanced (>200×), and wavelength-shifted (>500 nm) emission from strain-induced potential wells that facilitate effective carrier collection at room temperature. This work represents a fundamentally new paradigm for creating nanoscale devices with full heterostructure behavior in photonics and electronics.

At the nanoscale, semiconductor and metallic structures naturally exhibit strong, tunable optical resonances that can be utilized to enhance light-matter interaction and to dramatically increase the performance of chipscale photonic elements. Here, we demonstrate that the metallic leads used to extract current from a Ge nanowire (NW) photodetector can be redesigned to serve as optical antennas capable of concentrating light in the NW. The NW itself can also be made optically resonant and an overall performance optimization involves a careful tuning of both resonances. We show that such a procedure can result in broadband absorption enhancements of up to a factor 1.7 at a target wavelength of 660 nm and an ability to control the detector’s polarization-dependent response. The results of this study demonstrate the critical importance of performing a joint optimization of the electrical and optical properties of the metallic and semiconductor building blocks in optoelectronic devices with nanoscale components.

Over the past decade, the properties of plasmonic waveguides have extensively been studied as key elements in important applications that include biosensors, optical communication systems, quantum plasmonics, plasmonic logic, and quantum-cascade lasers. Whereas their guiding properties are by now fairly well-understood, practical implementation in chipscale systems is hampered by the lack of convenient electrical excitation schemes. Recently, a variety of surface plasmon lasers have been realized, but they have not yet been waveguide-coupled. Planar incoherent plasmonic sources have recently been coupled to plasmonic guides but routing of plasmonic signals requires coupling to linear waveguides. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of electrically driven GaAs nanowire light sources integrated with plasmonic nanostrip waveguides with a physical cross-section of 0.08λ2. The excitation and waveguiding of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) is experimentally demonstrated and analyzed with the help of full-field electromagnetic simulations. Splitting and routing of the electrically generated SPP signals around 90° bends are also shown. The realization of integrated plasmon sources greatly increases the applicability range of plasmonic waveguides and routing elements.

Systems of coupled resonators manifest a myriad of exciting fundamental physical phenomena. Analogous to the synthesis of molecules from single atoms, the construction of photonic molecules from stand-alone optical resonators represents a powerful strategy to realize novel functionalities. The coupling of high quality factor (Q) dielectric and semiconductor microresonators is by now well-understood and chipscale applications are abound. The coupling behavior of low-Q nanometallic structures has also been exploited to realize high-performance plasmonic devices and metamaterials. Although dense arrays of semiconductor nanoparticles and nanowires (NWs) find increasing use in optoelectronic devices, their photonic coupling has remained largely unexplored. These high refractive index nano-objects can serve as low-Q optical antennas that can effectively receive and broadcast light. We demonstrate that the broad band antenna response of a pair of NWs can be tuned significantly by engineering their optical coupling and develop an intuitive coupled-mode theory to explain our observations.

Future generations of photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation must employ inexpensive, earth-abundant absorber materials in order to provide a large-scale source of clean energy. These materials tend to have poor electrical transport properties and exhibit carrier diffusion lengths which are significantly shorter than the absorption depth of light. As a result, many photoexcited carriers are generated too far from a reactive surface and recombine instead of participating in solar-to-fuel conversion. We demonstrate that plasmonic resonances in metallic nanostructures and multilayer interference effects can be engineered to strongly concentrate sunlight close to the electrode/liquid interface, precisely where the relevant reactions take place. On comparison of spectral features in the enhanced photocurrent spectra to full-field electromagnetic simulations, the contribution of surface plasmon excitations is verified. These results open the door to the optimization of a wide variety of photochemical processes by leveraging the rapid advances in the field of plasmonics.

We perform spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging nanoscopy using a 30 keV electron beam to identify the resonant modes of an ultrathin (20 nm), laterally tapered plasmonic Ag nanostrip antenna. We resolve with deep-subwavelength resolution four antenna resonances (resonance orders m = 2–5) that are ascribed to surface plasmon polariton standing waves that are confined on the strip. We map the local density of states on the strip surface and show that it has contributions from symmetric and antisymmetric surface plasmon polariton modes, each with a very different mode index. This work illustrates the power of CL experiments that can visualize hidden modes that for symmetry reasons have been elusive in optical light scattering experiments.

The realization of electrical sources of surface plasmon polaritons using complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology is a significant step towards silicon-compatible nanoscale photonic devices.

Photovoltaic (PV) cells can serve as a virtually unlimited clean source of energy by converting sunlight into electrical power. Their importance is reflected in the tireless efforts that have been devoted to improving the electrical and structural properties of PV materials. More recently, photon management (PM) has emerged as a powerful additional means to boost energy conversion efficiencies. Here, we demonstrate an entirely new PM strategy that capitalizes on strong broad band optical antenna effects in one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures to dramatically enhance absorption of sunlight. We show that the absorption of sunlight in Si nanowires (Si NWs) can be significantly enhanced over the bulk. The NW’s optical properties also naturally give rise to an improved angular response. We propose that by patterning the silicon layer in a thin film PV cell into an array of NWs, one can boost the absorption for solar radiation by 25% while utilizing less than half of the semiconductor material (250% increase in the light absorption per unit volume of material). These results significantly advance our understanding of the way sunlight is absorbed by one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures and provide a clear, intuitive guidance for the design of efficient NW solar cells. The presented approach is universal to any semiconductor and a wide range of nanostructures; as such, it provides a new PV platform technology.

On-chip optical interconnection is considered as a substitute for conventional electrical interconnects as microelectronic circuitry continues to shrink in size. Central to this effort is the development of ultracompact, silicon-compatible, and functional optoelectronic devices. Photodetectors play a key role as interfaces between photonics and electronics but are plagued by a fundamental efficiency−speed trade-off. Moreover, engineering of desired wavelength and polarization sensitivities typically requires construction of space-consuming components. Here, we demonstrate how to overcome these limitations in a nanoscale metal−semiconductor−metal germanium photodetector for the optical communications band. The detector capitalizes on antenna effects to dramatically enhance the photoresponse (>25-fold) and to enable wavelength and polarization selectivity. The electrical design featuring asymmetric metallic contacts also enables ultralow dark currents (∼20 pA), low power consumption, and high-speed operation (>100 GHz). The presented high-performance photodetection scheme represents a significant step toward realizing integrated on-chip communication and manifests a new paradigm for developing miniaturized optoelectronics components.

Empowering silicon (Si) with optical functions constitutes a very important challenge in photonics. The scalable fabrication capabilities for this earth-abundant, environmentally friendly material are unmatched in sophistication and can be unleashed to realize a plethora of high-performance photonic functionalities that find application in information, bio-, display, camouflage, ornamental, and energy technologies. Nanofashioning represents a general strategy to turn Si into a useful optical material and Si structures have already been engineered to enable light emission, optical cloaking, waveguiding, nonlinear optics, enhanced light absorption, and sensing. Here, we demonstrate that a wide spectrum of colors can be generated by harnessing the strong resonant light scattering properties of Si nanostructures under white light illumination. The ability to engineer such colors in a predetermined fashion through a choice of the structure size, dielectric environment, and illumination conditions opens up entirely new applications of Si and puts this material in a new light.

A metal−dielectric−metal (MDM) waveguide with a nanoscale gap supports highly confined surface plasmon−polariton modes, termed gap plasmons. The spontaneous emission of an emitter placed in such a metal nanogap is expected to be strongly modified due to coupling to gap plasmons. We investigate the light emission properties of semiconductor quantum dots (QD) in a metal nanoslit, which is a truncated MDM waveguide. More specifically, we measure both the lifetime and the state of polarization of the out-coupled QD emission from a metal nanoslit. We observe clear lifetime and polarization changes of QD emission. As the slit width gets smaller, the QD exciton lifetime gradually decreases, and its emission becomes polarized normal to the slit, as expected for gap plasmon coupled light emission. We also find that the polarization of the collected QD emission is flipped (i.e., becomes parallel to a slit) when the excited emitters are located just outside the slit. We have conducted dipole emission calculations in metal nanoslits, and these explain the experimentally observed lifetime and polarization changes well. These findings may have novel applications in nanoscale optical sources, sensors, and active devices.

Optical antennas are a critical component in nanophotonics research1 and have been used to enhance nonlinear2, 3 and Raman4 cross-sections and to make nanoscale optical probes5. In addition to their ‘receiving’ properties, optical antennas can operate in ‘broadcasting’ mode, and have been used to modify the emission rate6 and direction7 of individual molecules. In these applications the antenna must operate at frequencies given by existing light emitters. Using thermal excitation of optical antennas, we bypass this limitation and realize emitters at infrared frequencies where sources are less readily available. Specifically, we show that the thermal emission from a single SiC whisker antenna is attributable to well-defined, size-tunable Mie resonances8. Furthermore, we derive a fundamental limit on the antenna emittance and argue theoretically that these structures are nearly ideal black-body antennas. Combined with advancing progress in antenna design, these results could lead to optical antenna emitters operating throughout the infrared frequency range.

CMOS compatible electrooptic plasmonic modulators are slated to be key components in chip-scale photonic circuits. In this work, we investigate detailed design and optimization protocols for electrooptic plasmonic modulators that are suitable for free-space coupling and on-chip integration. The metallic structures in the proposed devices offer simultaneous electric and optical functions. The resonance-enhanced nonlinear interaction and submicrometer-footprint of these devices meet the stringent requirements for future CMOS modulators, allowing for high-speed operation (>100 GHz) with a decent modulation depth (>3 dB) and moderate insertion loss (<3 dB) at a very low swing voltage (∼1 V) and power dissipation (∼1 fJ/bit). The realization of the proposed structures appears feasible with current materials and lithographic techniques.

We demonstrate a surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waveguide all-optical switch that combines the unique physical properties of small molecules and metallic (plasmonic) nanostructures. The switch consists of a pair of gratings defined in an aluminum film coated with a 65 nm thick layer of photochromic (PC) molecules. The first grating couples a signal beam consisting of free space photons to SPPs that interact effectively with the PC molecules. These molecules can reversibly be switched between transparent and absorbing states using a free space optical pump. In the transparent (signal “on”) state, the SPPs freely propagate through the molecular layer, and in the absorbing (signal “off”) state, the SPPs are strongly attenuated. The second grating serves to decouple the SPPs back into a free space optical beam, enabling measurement of the modulated signal with a far-field detector. In a preliminary study, the switching behavior of the PC molecules themselves was confirmed and quantified by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. The excellent (16%) overlap of the SPP mode profile with the thin layer of switching molecules enabled efficient switching with power densities of ∼6.0 mW/cm2 in 1.5 µm × 8 µm devices, resulting in plasmonic switching powers of 0.72 nW per device. Calculations further showed that modulation depths in access of 20 dB can easily be attained in optimized designs. The quantitative experimental and theoretical analysis of the nonvolatile switching behavior in this letter guides the design of future nanoscale optically or electrically pumped optical switches.

We present a highly sensitive and accurate microcavity-based technique to quantify the free-carrier absorption (FCA) cross-section of semiconductor quantum-dot ensembles. The procedure is based on measuring the pump-intensity-dependent broadening of the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) of microdisk resonators. We have applied this technique to determine the FCA cross-section of Si nanocrystals (Si-ncs) in the visible−near-infrared wavelength range. Our procedure accounts for the size distribution effects by including the measured wavelength dependence of the excitation cross-section and the decay rate of photoexcited carriers in the analysis. By monitoring the WGM widths at various wavelengths in the 700−900 nm wavelength range, we found that the FCA cross-section follows an approximately quadratic wavelength dependence. The magnitude of the FCA cross-section of Si nanocrystals was determined to be a factor of 7 higher than that in bulk Si. For this reason, these findings have important implications for the design of Si-based lasers and all-optical switching devices in which FCA plays a critical role.

Engineering control of nanostructures is becoming increasingly important as nanotechnology applications develop and as device features shrink. In many nanotechnology-driven applications, bottoms-up fabrication of devices offers many inherent advantages over conventional top-down approaches typically employed today. In order to be commercially viable, bottoms-up fabrication methodologies must rely upon the synthesis and assembly of nanoengineered structures. The silicon nanoparticle-based floating-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor is an example of a device that incorporates nanostructures and is an attractive candidate for terabit cm−2 density nonvolatile memory applications. However, variability in the size, location, and interface electronic quality of the nanoparticles in an ensemble limits device performance. To reduce device variability, the Si nanoparticle layer can be fabricated using a bottoms-up approach. Aerosol Si nanoparticles are synthesized by thermal decomposition of silane gas in a reactor optimized to produce spherical, single-crystal, nonagglomerated nanoparticles. The aerosol nanoparticles are size-classified with a differential mobility analyzer to produce narrow size distributions. Uniform oxide layers in the nanometer thickness range are then formed on the Si nanoparticles, either by thermal oxidation or by aerosol vapor phase tetraethylorthosilicate deposition. Electronic measurements indicate that high temperature thermal SiO2 and deposited tetraethylorthosilicate-derived SiO2 form shells of sufficient quality and thickness to isolate electrically adjacent nanoparticles from each other. Photoluminescence measurements used to probe the Si/SiO2 interface indicate the presence of a high quality interface between deposited tetraethylorthosilicate oxide and Si nanoparticles.

A technique to locally grow germanium-on-insulator (GOI) structure on silicon (Si) platform is studied. On (001) Si wafer, silicon dioxide (SiO2) is thermally grown and patterned to define growth window for germanium (Ge). Crystalline Ge is grown via selective hetero-epitaxy, using SiO2 as growth mask. Lateral overgrowth of Ge crystal covers SiO2 surface and neighboring Ge crystals coalesce with each other. Therefore, single crystalline Ge sitting on insulator for GOI applications is achieved. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is performed to planarize the GOI surface. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) show high quality crystalline Ge sitting on SiO2. Optical response from metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetector shows good optical absorption at 850 nm and 1550 nm wavelength.