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Article
Microsphere Photolithography Patterned Nanohole Array on an Optical Fiber
IEEE Access
  • Ibrahem Jasim
  • Jiayu Liu
  • Chen Zhu
  • Muhammad Roman
  • Jie Huang, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Edward Kinzel, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Mahmoud Almasri
Abstract

Microsphere Photolithography (MPL) is a nanopatterning technique that utilizes a self-assembled monolayer of microspheres as an optical element to focus incident radiation inside a layer of photoresist. The microspheres produces a sub-diffraction limited photonic-jet on the opposite side of each microsphere from the illumination. When combined with pattern transfer techniques such as etching/lift-off, MPL provides a versatile, low-cost fabrication method for producing hexagonal close-packed metasurfaces. This article investigates the MPL process for creating refractive index (RI) sensors on the cleaved tips of optical fiber. The resonant wavelength of metal elements on the surface is dependent on the local dielectric environment and allows the refractive index of an analyte to be resolved spectrally. A numerical study of hole arrays defined in metal films shows that the waveguide mode provides good sensitivity to the analyte refractive index. This can be readily tuned by adjusting the MPL exposure and the simulation results guide the fabrication of a defect tolerant refractive index sensor on the tip of a fiber tip with a sensitivity of 613 nm/RIU. The conformal nature of the microsphere monolayer simplifies the fabrication process and provides a viable alternative to direct-write techniques such as Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milling.

Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Center/Lab(s)
Intelligent Systems Center
Comments

This work was supported in part by the Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AOI), and in part by the NSF Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) under Grant 1653792.

Keywords and Phrases
  • Fiber Tip,
  • Microsphere Photolithography,
  • Refractive Index
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2021 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Publication Date
01 Jan 2021
Citation Information
Ibrahem Jasim, Jiayu Liu, Chen Zhu, Muhammad Roman, et al.. "Microsphere Photolithography Patterned Nanohole Array on an Optical Fiber" IEEE Access Vol. 9 (2021) p. 32627 - 32633 ISSN: 2169-3536
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jie-huang/181/