Title: Campanile Near-Field Probes Fabricated by Nanoimprint Lithography on the Facet of an Optical Fiber

Abstract

One of the major challenges to the widespread adoption of plasmonic and nano-optical devices in real-life applications is the difficulty to mass-fabricate nano-optical antennas in parallel and reproducible fashion, and the capability to precisely place nanoantennas into devices with nanometer-scale precision. In this study, we present a solution to this challenge using the state-of-the-art ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) to fabricate functional optical transformers onto the core of an optical fiber in a single step, mimicking the 'campanile' near-field probes. Imprinted probes were fabricated using a custom-built imprinter tool with co-axial alignment capability with sub < 100 nm position accuracy, followed by a metallization step. Scanning electron micrographs confirm high imprint fidelity and precision with a thin residual layer to facilitate efficient optical coupling between the fiber and the imprinted optical transformer. The imprinted optical transformer probe was used in an actual NSOM measurement performing hyperspectral photoluminescence mapping of standard fluorescent beads. The calibration scans confirmed that imprinted probes enable sub-diffraction limited imaging with a spatial resolution consistent with the gap size. This novel nano-fabrication approach promises a low-cost, high-throughput, and reproducible manufacturing of advanced nano-optical devices.

Authors:

Calafiore, Giuseppe ^[1]; Koshelev, Alexander  ^[1];

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Darlington, Thomas P. ^[2]; Borys, Nicholas J. ^[2]; Melli, Mauro ^[2]; Polyakov, Aleksandr ^[2]; Cantarella, Giuseppe ^[2]; Allen, Frances I. ^[3]; Lum, Paul ^[4]; Wong, Ed ^[2]; Sassolini, Simone ^[2]; Weber-Bargioni, Alexander ^[2]; Schuck, P. James ^[2]; Cabrini, Stefano ^[2]; Munechika, Keiko ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. aBeam Technologies, Hayward, CA (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center

Publication Date:

Wed May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1379938

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231; C0013109; DMR-1338139

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Scientific Reports

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:

Nature Publishing Group

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; imaging and sensing; nanophotonics and plasmonics