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Rough surface and poor stability of ultrathin Ag films limit their applications in nanophotonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we report an approach for fabricating ultrasmooth and thermally stable Ag-based thin films on SiO2/Si substrates by Al-doping. The effect of Al-doping on the surface morphology and stability of ultrathin Ag films at room temperature and elevated temperature was investigated. The 15 nm Al-doped Ag films with an Al atomic concentration of 4% have a root-mean-square roughness as low as 0.4 nm. The smooth surface morphology is maintained even after 300 °C annealing in N2. Al-doping enhances the nuclei density of films. Moreover, a capping layer spontaneously formed over the Al-doped Ag films restrains the surface diffusion and mass transportation of Ag atoms. Therefore, Al-doping induces ultrathin Ag films with highly stable and ultrasmooth surface morphology.

An ultrathin, smooth, and low-loss Ag film without a wetting layer is achieved by co-depositing a small amount of Al into Ag. The film can be as thin as 6 nm, with a roughness below 1 nm and excellent mechanical flexibility. Organic photovoltaics that use these thin films as transparent electrode show superior efficiency to their indium tin oxide (ITO) counterparts because of improved photon management., (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

A simple and robust scheme is proposed for the fabrication of nanoscale (20 nm line width) and high-aspect-ratio (9:1) structures by using modulus-tunable UV curable epoxy resists. Additionally, the ability to control the Young's modulus of the imprinted material from hard to rigiflex using these epoxy resists is demonstrated. The physical properties of the new epoxy resists were controlled by adjusting the ratio of bisphenol F-type epoxy resin and acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber-based epoxy resin in the formulation of the resist. The mechanical properties of the resist were tuned to obtain various aspect ratios as well as mold flexibility for conformal contact over non-planar surfaces and large areas. In order to reduce the line width of the imprinted patterns, a process to conformally coat the mold structure by atomic layer deposition of alumina was also developed. Narrow lines with high-aspect-ratio features and with very low defect density were achieved via the new approach and the high mechanical strength of the new resist formulation.

To move beyond colorant-based pigmentation display technologies, a variety of photonic and plasmonic crystal based structures have been designed and applied as colour filters. Nanostructure based colour filtering offers increased efficiencies, low power consumption, slim dimensions, and enhanced resolution. However, incident angle tolerance still needs to be improved. In this work, we propose a new scheme through localized resonance in metallic nanoslits by light funneling. Angle insensitive colour filters up to ±80 degrees have been achieved, capable of wide colour tunability across the entire visible band with pixel size beyond the diffraction limit (~λ/2). This work opens the door to angle insensitive manipulation of light with structural filtering.

In this study, we report a new method to fabricate a wire grid polarizer (WGP) that greatly relaxes the requirement on patterning and etching, and can be easily applied to produce flexible WGPs. The technique is to pattern a high aspect ratio and narrow linewidth grating by nanoimprint lithography followed by two angled aluminum depositions in opposite directions to produce the narrow spacing between the aluminum lines required for a visible band WGP. Anisotropic reactive ion etching is used to remove the aluminum deposited at the top of the grating but leave the aluminum layer on the grating sidewalls, thereby forming a metal wire grid with much smaller spacings than a lithographically defined grating. As a result, the fabricated WGP showed good performance in a wide range of visible wavelength.

In addition to colorant-based pigmentation, structure is a major contributor to a material's color. In nature, structural color is often caused by the interaction of light with dielectric structures whose dimensions are on the order of visible-light wavelengths. Different optical interactions including multilayer interference, light scattering, the photonic crystal effect, and combinations thereof give rise to selective transmission or reflection of particular light wavelengths, which leads to the generation of structural color. Recent developments in nanofabrication of plasmonic and carbon nanostructures have opened another efficient way to control light properties at the subwavelength scale, including visible-light wavelength selection, which can produce structural color. In this Concept, the most relevant and representative achievements demonstrated over the last several years are presented and analyzed. These plasmonic and carbon nanostructures are believed to offer great potential for high-resolution color displays and spectral filtering applications., (Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Colour and spectral imaging systems typically use filters and glass prisms to disperse light of different wavelengths. With the miniaturization of integrated devices, current research on imaging sensors focuses on novel designs aiming at high efficiency, low power consumption and slim dimension, which poses great challenges to the traditional colourant-based filtering and prism-based spectral splitting techniques. In this context, surface plasmon-based nanostructures are attractive due to their small dimensions and the ability to efficiently manipulate light. In this article we use selective conversion between free-space waves and spatially confined modes in plasmonic nanoresonators formed by subwavelength metal-insulator-metal stack arrays to show that the transmission spectra through such arrays can be well controlled by using simple design rules, and high-efficiency colour filters capable of transmitting arbitrary colours can be achieved. These artificial nanostructures provide an approach for high spatial resolution colour filtering and spectral imaging with extremely compact device architectures.