German scientists develop method to fabricate nanospheres using ultrashort laser pulses

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-4-17 10:08:43

The Nanophotonics Group of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) has developed a method to fabricate nanoparticles made of different materials with controlled, reproducible sizes and to precisely deposit these particles on a receiver substrate, as LZH announced on Wednesday.

Published in the March 4th issue of Nature Communications, scientists, for the first time, at the LZH were able to fabricate perfectly round silicon nanoparticles with a diameter of 165 nm and to arrange them in ordered structures.

LZH said that this novel method uses ultrashort laser pulses to print nanoparticles with sizes in the two to three digit nanometer range made of different materials, such as metals, semiconductors and dielectrics.

Afterwards, these nanoparticles can be precisely deposited on a receiver substrate.

"This novel method is the first that allows for both fabricating and precisely depositing nanoparticles of a certain size", explains Prof. Dr. Boris Chichkov, head of the Nanotechnology Department.

"In this respect, our method is far superior to chemical processes which can produce large quantities of nanoparticles but not place them at the desired position."

As nanoparticles exhibit the unique optical property to scatter only light of a particular wavelength, they can be used for various applications in medicine and sensor technology, said LZH.

"The results have already lead to the emergence of silicon nano-photonics as a new research field of worldwide interest", says Chichkov. "Therefore, the new method will certainly find many new applications."

Meanwhile, two- or three-dimensionally arranged particle structures, such as nanoantennas, nanolasers and metamaterials, can be generated with this method, said LZH.

Posted in: Others

blog comments powered by Disqus