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Title
Nanofabrication Using Automated Optical Tweezers for Photonic Devices and Metamaterials
Abstract
The design and fabrication of nanophotonic devices is critical for both the development of technological innovations relying on the nanoscale manipulation of light and scaling down existing technology. Using nanoscale features, metamaterials offer the ability to engineer unique photonic properties that are not attainable from natural materials. Understanding how metamaterials interact with light is paramount to designing systems with novel material parameters, which can be difficult to predict theoretically. Previous works have addressed such challenges but lack a definitive solution to ambiguities that arise when determining the material parameters. In terms of fabrication techniques, existing methods such as lithography and self-assembly offer advantages related to resolution and processing speeds but can face limitations with material integration and structure complexity.
This dissertation presents the design of metamaterials made from nanoparticle building blocks and the automation of the optical positioning and linking (OPAL) system that uses optical tweezers and biochemical linking for 3D microfabrication. First, the design of a 3D magnetic metamaterial using germanium nanoparticles is presented which introduces an original solution to overcoming the ambiguities that occur in metamaterial parameter retrieval and illustrates how particle arrangement influences retrieval results. Next, innovations enabling a fully automated assembly process using the OPAL platform are discussed, and structures created using the automated system are highlighted. Lastly, a method for the experimental measurement of individual electric and magnetic dipole scattering is provided, and the design of a metasurface using titania nanoparticles is shown. Notably, the automated OPAL system is a suitable platform for fabrication of the designed systems presented here.
Please email Jini at jini@optics.arizona.edu or Natalie at nkshultz@arizona.edu for a Zoom link.