Senspex Featured in NIST

Senspex was featured in the Fall 2010 edition of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Nanoscale Science & Technology (CNST) newsletter for the development of a low cost, polymer-assisted deposition (PAD) process for coating titanium dioxide (TiO2) into nanostructures.

Conformal coating of nanofabricated structures with high index materials is a challenge for photonic nanostructures and other nanoscale devices. Recently, researchers from Senspex, working in the Nano-fab with assistance from the NanoFab staff, developed a low cost, polymer-assisted deposition (PAD) process for coating titanium dioxide (TiO2) into nanostructures. In the PAD process, a thermally curable, hybrid, high refractive index polymer solution is spin-coated onto a substrate. The viscous polymer binds the metal ions, which are in a homogeneous distribution in the precursor solution. When cured at elevated temperature, the polymer decomposes to form a metal oxide-rich film with high refractive index that conformally fills the voids in nanofabricated structures. This new process can be applied inexpensively to make a diverse set of integrated photonic and plasmonic devices such as planar waveguides, on-chip spectrometers, gratings, flat panel displays, optical sensors, and integrated optical devices. For more information about the process, contact Lei Chen, 301-975- 2908.

Polymer-Assisted Conformal Coating of TiO2 Thin Films, E. S. Gillman, D. Costello, M. Moreno, A. Raspopin, R. Kasica, and L. Chen, Journal of Applied Physics 108, 044310 (2010).

Published 11/22/2010