Phase-Separated Nanophotonic Structures by Inkjet Printing
Abstract
The spontaneous phase separation of two or more polymers is a thermodynamic process that can take place in both biological and synthetic materials and which results in the structuring of the matter from the micro- to the nanoscale. For photonic applications, it allows forming quasi-periodic or disordered assemblies of light scatterers at high throughput and low cost. The wet process methods currently used to fabricate phase-separated nanostructures (PSNs) limit the design possibilities, which in turn hinders the deployment of PSNs in commercialized products. To tackle this shortcoming, we introduce a versatile and industrially scalable deposition method based on the inkjet printing of a polymer blend, leading to PSNs with a feature size that is tuned from a few micrometers down to sub-100 nm. Consequently, PSNs can be rapidly processed into the desired macroscopic design. We demonstrate that these printed PSNs can improve light management in manifold photonic applications, exemplified here by exploiting them as a light extraction layer and a metasurface for light-emitting devices and point-of-care biosensors, respectively.
Additional Information
© 2021 American Chemical Society. Received: January 20, 2021; Accepted: April 7, 2021; Published: April 12, 2021. Y.J.D. is part of the Max Planck School of Photonics supported by BMBF, Max Planck Society, and Fraunhofer Society. The KIT team gratefully acknowledges support from the Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics (www.ksop.de). The KIT team also acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy via the Excellence Cluster 3D Matter Made to Order (Grant No. EXC-2082/1-390761711). R.H.S. and V.N. gratefully acknowledge critical support and infrastructure provided for this work by the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, Caltech Beckman Institute, and the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation at Caltech and Samsung Global Research Outreach program. Author Contributions: Y.J.D., S.S., and G.G. conceived the study. Y.J.D., R.H.S., and G.G. designed the analyses. Y.J.D., S.S., A.M., F.S., and M.P. optimized IJP ink formulation and fabricated the samples with IJP PSNs. Y.J.D. conducted the microscopy and optical characterization of the samples. Y.J.D. and I.M.H. conducted the optimization and deposition of the ITO for OLED devices. Y.J.D. fabricated and characterized the OLED devices. R.H.S. and V.N. conducted the simulation, fabrication, and characterization of the biosensor devices. G.G., G.H.S., and U.L. supervised the project. Y.J.D., R.H.S., U.L., and G.G. wrote the initial manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. The authors declare no competing financial interest.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - nn1c00552_si_001.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 108752
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20210416-084646988
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
- Max Planck Society
- Fraunhofer Society
- Karlsruhe School of Optics and Photonics
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- EXC-2082/1-390761711
- Kavli Nanoscience Institute
- Caltech Beckman Institute
- Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
- SAMSUNG Global Research Outreach
- Created
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2021-04-19Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-04-28Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Kavli Nanoscience Institute