Chun-Hway Hsueh

Resonance modes, cavity field enhancements, and long-range collective photonic effects in periodic bowtie nanostructures

The discovery of single-molecule sensitivity via surface-enhanced Raman scattering on resonantly excited noble metal nanoparticles has brought an increasing interest in its applications to the molecule detection and identification. Periodic gold bowtie nanostructures have recently been shown to give a large enhancement factor sufficient for single molecule detection. In this work, we simulate the plasmon resonance for periodic gold bowtie nanostructures. The difference between the dipole and the quadrupole resonances is described by examining the magnitude and phase of electric field, the bound surface charge, and the polarization. The gap size dependence of the field enhancement can be interpreted by considering cavity field enhancement. Also, additional enhancement is obtained through the long-range collective photonic effect when the bowtie array periodicity matches the resonance wavelength.

Effects of corner radius on periodic nanoantenna for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Corner radius is a concept to approximate the fabrication limitation due to the effective beam broadening at the corner in using electron-beam lithography. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of corner radius on the electromagnetic field enhancement and resonance wavelength for three periodic polygon dimers of bowtie, twin square, and twin pentagon. The enhancement factor of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy due to the localized surface plasmon resonances in fabricated gold bowtie nanostructures was investigated using both Raman spectroscopy and finite-difference time-domain simulations. The simulated enhancement factor versus corner radius relation was in agreement with measurements and it could be fitted by a power-law relation. In addition, the resonance wavelength showed blue shift with the increasing corner radius because of the distribution of concentrated charges in a larger area. For different polygons, the corner radius instead of the tip angle is the dominant factor of the electromagnetic field enhancement because the surface charges tend to localize at the corner. Greater enhancements can be obtained by having both the smaller gap and sharper corner although the corner radius effect on intensity enhancement is less than the gap size effect.

Sn whisker mitigation by a thin metallic-glass underlayer in Cu-Sn

This study investigates the effects of thin film metallic glass (TFMG) as an underlayer on the Sn whisker mitigation in the Cu-Sn couples. Samples with and without TFMG underlayers were subjected to various heat treatments at elevated temperatures up to 85 °C in monotonic and cyclic modes. TFMG underlayer effectively blocks the Cu/Sn interaction even with the thickness as thin as 25 nm. In addition, with very thin thickness, the introduction of TFMG underlayer is expected to yield insignificant degrees of compressive stress, which is anticipated to occur when the samples are exposed to thermal cycling. Their thin thickness and amorphous nature are considered beneficial to make TFMGs as a promising diffusion barrier for Sn whisker mitigation.

Advanced characterization of mechanical properties of multilayer ceramic capacitors

Characterization of the mechanical properties of small components is a significant issue. For the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), direct loading by conventional facilities is not suitable because of its small size. To date, the standard method used to determine MLCC’s mechanical properties is board flex test; i.e., mounting the capacitor onto a printed circuit board (PCB) and applying bending to the entire system. Failure is defined as cracking or capacitance loss of the MLCC when the mounted PCB is subjected to a specified deflection, and the measurements are usually performed after the test. In this case, characterization of the mechanical properties of MLCCs is qualitative. The purpose of the present study was to quantitatively characterize the mechanical properties of MLCCs. Specifically, the acoustic emission was used to detect cracking of MLCCs during the board flex test. To confirm cracking-induced acoustic emission, telemicroscope was used to perform the in situ observation of cracking. Finite element analyses were also performed to analyze the stress field resulting from the test to compare with the observed cracking path. In addition, nanoindentation was used to explore the mechanical properties of the constituents of MLCCs in the nanoscale. Our work not only allows identification and understanding of the fracture origin, but also provides guidelines in the material design.

Electric field enhancement and far-field radiation pattern of the nanoantenna with concentric rings.

The optical antennas have the potential in various applications because of their field enhancement and directivity control. The directivity of a dipole antenna can be improved by directivity-enhanced Raman scattering structure, which is a combination of a dipole antenna and a ring reflector layer on a ground plane. The concentric rings can collect the light into the center hole. Depending upon the geometry of the antenna inside the hole, different electric field enhancements can be achieved. In this paper, we propose to combine the concentric rings with the directivity-enhanced Raman scattering structure in order to study its electric field enhancement and the far-field radiation pattern by finite-difference time-domain simulations. Compared with the structure without the concentric rings over the ground plane, it is found that our proposed structure can obtain stronger electric field enhancements and narrower radiation beams because the gold rings can help to couple the light into the nanoantenna and they also scatter light into the far field and modify the far-field radiation pattern. The designed structures were fabricated and the chemical molecules of thiophenol were attached on the structures for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements. The measured results show that the structure with concentric rings can have stronger SERS signals. The effects of the dielectric layer thickness in our proposed structure on the near-field enhancements and far-field radiation are also investigated. The proposed structure can be useful for several nanoantenna applications, such as sensing or detecting.

Enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting by plasmonic Au nanostructures/reduced graphene oxide

Plasmonic photocatalyst has attracted much attention since plasmonic nanostructures were demonstrated to increase the visible and/or infrared light activity of conventional semiconductor and further to improve the performance of the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here we utilized highly conductive reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets and gold nanotriangles (NTs) with remarkable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the visible region to improve the photoresponse of TiO2 branched nanorods (NRs), which were fabricated by a two-step hydrothermal grown method. Upon the concurrent addition of Au NTs and RGO, the photocurrent, which was measured by three-electrode PEC reactor under illumination of simulated solar light, showed a pronounced ~37% improvement compared to TiO2 branched NRs and ~450 % enhancement compared to TO2 NRs. It iss believed that not only the photon scattering effect and LSPR response in visible region (~675 and ~530 nm) of Au NTs but also the high conductivity and large surface area of RGO assisted in harvesting visible light, accelerated charge carrier transportation, and reduced the charge recombination rate to improve the PEC water splitting performance of TiO2.

Gold-rich ligament nanostructure by dealloying Au-based metallic glass ribbon for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

A new method to fabricate an Au-rich interconnected ligament substrate by dealloying the Au-based metallic glass ribbon for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications was investigated in this study. Specifically, three substrates, Au film, Au-based metallic glass ribbon, and dealloyed Au-based metallic glass ribbon, were studied. The dealloyed surface showed ligament nanostructure with protruding micro-islands. Based on the field emission scanning electron microscopy, reflection and scattering measurements, the dealloyed Au-based metallic glass provided a large surface area, multiple reflections, and numerous fine interstices to produce hot spots for SERS enhancements. The SERS signal of analyte, p-aminothiophenol, in the micro-island region of dealloyed Au-based metallic glass was about 2 orders of magnitude larger than the flat Au film. Our work provides a new method to fabricate the inexpensive and high SERS enhancements substrates.

Suspended graphene with periodic dimer nanostructure on Si cavities for surface-enhanced Raman scattering applications

Periodic gold dimer nanoantennas on a one-atomic-layer graphene sheet elevated above Si cavities were fabricated to systematically study the effects of the cavity depth on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The periodic trend of Raman intensity as a function of the cavity depth resulting from the interference effect between the plasmonic resonance of the gold dimer and the cavity resonance of the underlying Si cavity was observed, and the electric field was greatly enhanced compared with the non-suspended system. The finite-difference time-domain method was used to simulate the interaction between the electromagnetic wave and the suspended system and to verify the observed SERS response in experiments. Our work has the advantages of combining the superior properties of graphene with suspended metallic nanostructures to result in the enhanced electric field for SERS applications.