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Nanostructured Metal Coatings Let the Light through for Electronic Devices
December 9, 2015 | University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
"The nanopillars enhance the optical transmission while the metal film offers electrical contact. Remarkably, we can improve our optical transmission and electrical access simultaneously," said Runyu Liu, a graduate researcher at Illinois and a co-lead author of the work along with Illinois graduate researcher Xiang Zhao and Massachusetts graduate researcher Christopher Roberts.
The researchers demonstrated that their technique, which results in metal covering roughly half of the surface, can transmit about 90 percent of light to or from the surface. For comparison, the bare, unpatterned surface with no metal can only transmit 70 percent of the light and has no electrical contact.
The researchers also demonstrated their ability to tune the material's optical properties by adjusting the metal film's dimensions and how deeply it etches into the semiconductor.
"We are looking to integrate these nanostructured films with optoelectronic devices to demonstrate that we can simultaneously improve both the optical and electronic properties of devices operating at wavelengths from the visible all the way to the far infrared," Wasserman said.
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