Leti, innovation
for industry
Home
>Discover Leti
>Leti's research
>Basic technologies
> PlasmonicsPlasmonics
Contact : Laurent Fulbert (laurent.fulbert@cea.fr)
Manipulating light with nanostructured metal
Leti supports plasmonic devices with new manufacturing techniques and state-of-the-art characterization and simulation tools.
Metals are often employed as electrical contacts in optronics systems and also when some reflective elements are needed. Now, with the emergence of technologies for fabrication of nanometer-scale patterns in metal films, metals are appearing in optical elements such as resonators, filters, and optical sources.
These new devices depend on surface plasmons, photon-electron hybrid waves propagating at the interface between a metal and a dielectric.
By manipulating interference between plasmon waves, designers can increase or decrease optical transmission through the dielectric or localize light within tiny volumes.
Leti is working to realize the potential of plasmonic devices by:
- developing specific simulation tools and optical characterization methods
- integrating them with microelectronic fabrication methods
- investigating a variety of potential applications for plasmonic devices with our industrial partners
Leti seeks optimization
-High-density data storage requires arrays of nanometer-scale features. To pattern these arrays, lithographers would like to have a high brightness optical source able to generate nanometer-scale spots of light. While an isolated 30nm slit in a silver film transmitted less than 5 percent of incident light, placing such a slit at the center of a nano-patterned grating allowed designers to exploit constructive interference between surface plasmons. Transmission efficiency jumped to nearly 30 percent.
-Emissions that are trapped by the device electrodes can substantially reduce the perceived brightness in organic light-emitting devices (OLED) and lead to significant optical losses. By using nanoimprint lithography to pattern structured metal electrodes, Leti researchers achieved a 25 percent increase in light extraction. At the same time, they used recently developed simulation tools for faster optimization of the electrode structure.
|
|