Large-Scale and Low-Cost Fabrication of Silicon Mie Resonators

Abstract

High index dielectric nanoparticles have been proposed for many different applications. However, widespread utilization in practice also requires large-scale production methods for crystalline silicon nanoparticles, with engineered optical properties in a low-cost manner. Here, we demonstrate a facile, low-cost, and large-scale fabrication method of crystalline silicon colloidal Mie resonators in water, using a blender. The obtained nanoparticles are polydisperse with an almost spherical shape and the diameters controlled in the range 100-200 nm by a centrifugation process. Then the size distribution of silicon nanoparticles enables broad extinction from UV to near-infrared, confirmed by Mie theory when considering the size distribution in the calculations. Thanks to photolithographic and drop-cast deposition techniques to locate the position on a substrate of the colloidal nanoparticles, we experimentally demonstrate that the individual silicon nanoresonators show strong electric and magnetic Mie resonances in the visible range.

Keywords: Mie resonances; colloidal solution; high-index dielectric; large scale; low cost; silicon nanoparticles.