Replication of patterned thin-film structures for use in plasmonics and metamaterials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9356238-B2
Application number	US-201414578873-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2014
Priority date	Nov 25, 2008
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

The present invention provides templating methods for replicating patterned metal films from a template substrate such as for use in plasmonic devices and metamaterials. Advantageously, the template substrate is reusable and can provide plural copies of the structure of the template substrate. Because high-quality substrates that are inherently smooth and flat are available, patterned metal films in accordance with the present invention can advantageously provide surfaces that replicate the surface characteristics of the template substrate both in the patterned regions and in the unpatterned regions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making a patterned device, the method comprising:
providing one or more periodically distributed surface feature in a first silicon substrate to form a patterned template;
coating the patterned template with a metal to form a thin-film layer structure on the one or more periodically distributed surface feature;
coating the thin-film layer structure with a material to form an adhesive layer;
attaching a second silicon substrate to the adhesive layer; and
separating the thin-film layer structure from the patterned template.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising coating the patterned template with one or more of tungsten, tantalum, silver, gold, copper, molybdenum, and titanium.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising reusing the patterned template to replicate a plurality of patterned devices.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the one or more periodically distributed surface feature comprises at least one of one or more arcuate channel, one or more linear channel, one or more angular channel, and one or more opening.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising fabricating one or more of a plasmonic device, a metamaterial based device, a microfluidic device, a sensing device, and an emitter device.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising providing at least one additional thin-film material on the metal to form the thin-film layer structure.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising epitaxially coating the patterned template with the metal to form a thin-film metal layer that is at least partially single-crystal.

8. The method of claim 7 , comprising annealing the thin-film metal layer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises an adhesive.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises an electrodeposited metal.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more periodically distributed surface feature comprises a plurality of concentric periodic channels.

Assignees

• Univ Minnesota

Inventors

• Norris David J
• Han Sang Eon
• Nagpal Prashant
• Bhan Aditya
• Lindquist Nathan Charles
• Oh Sang-Huyn

Classifications

• H10F77/413

  directly associated or integrated with the devices, e.g. back reflectors (directly associated or integrated with photovoltaic cells H10F77/42) · CPC title

• H10F77/42

  directly associated or integrated with photovoltaic cells, e.g. light-reflecting means or light-concentrating means · CPC title

• Y10T428/12493

  Composite; i.e., plural, adjacent, spatially distinct metal components [e.g., layers, joint, etc.] · CPC title

• H01L31/02327

  Electricity · mapped topic

• Y10T428/12486

  Laterally noncoextensive components [e.g., embedded, etc.] · CPC title