Hyungryul J. Choi

Nanotextured silica surfaces with robust superhydrophobicity and omnidirectional broadband supertransmissivity.

Designing multifunctional surfaces that have user-specified interactions with impacting liquids and with incident light is a topic of both fundamental and practical significance. Taking cues from nature, we use tapered conical nanotextures to fabricate the multifunctional surfaces; the slender conical features result in large topographic roughness, while the axial gradient in the effective refractive index minimizes reflection through adiabatic index-matching between air and the substrate. Precise geometric control of the conical shape and slenderness of the features as well as periodicity at the nanoscale are all keys to optimizing the multifunctionality of the textured surface, but at the same time, these demands pose the toughest fabrication challenges. Here we report a systematic approach to concurrent design of optimal structures in the fluidic and optical domains and a fabrication procedure that achieves the desired aspect ratios and periodicities with few defects and large pattern area. Our fabricated nanostructures demonstrate structural superhydrophilicity or, in combination with a suitable chemical coating, robust superhydrophobicity. Enhanced polarization-independent optical transmission exceeding 98% has also been achieved over a broad range of bandwidth and incident angles. These nanotextured surfaces are also robustly antifogging or self-cleaning, offering potential benefits for applications such as photovoltaic solar cells.

Nanostructured gradient-index antireflection diffractive optics

We describe the fabrication and characterization of a nanostructured diffractive element with near-zero reflection losses. In this element, subwavelength nanostructures emulating adiabatic index matching are integrated on the surface of a diffractive microstructure to suppress reflected diffraction orders. The fabricated silicon grating exhibits reflected efficiencies that are suppressed by 2 orders of magnitude over broad wavelength bands and wide incident angles. Theoretical models of the fabricated structure based on rigorous coupled-wave analysis and effective medium theory are in agreement with the experimental data. The proposed principles can be applied to improve the performance of any diffractive structures, potentially leading to more efficient Fresnel lenses, holographic elements, and integrated optical systems.

Multifunctional Inverted Nanocone Arrays for Non‐Wetting, Self‐Cleaning Transparent Surface with High Mechanical Robustness

A multifunctional surface that enables control of wetting, optical reflectivity and mechanical damage of nanostructured interfaces is presented. Our approach is based on imprinting a periodic array of nanosized cones into a UV-curable polyurethane acrylate (PUA), resulting in a self-reinforcing egg-crate topography evenly distributed over large areas up to several cm(2) in size. The resulting surfaces can be either superhydrophilic or superhydrophobic (through subsequent application of an appropriate chemical coating), they minimize optical reflection losses over a broad range of wavelengths and a wide range of angles of incidence, and they also have enhanced mechanical resilience due to greatly improved redistribution of the normal and shearing mechanical loads. The transmissivity and wetting characteristics of the nanoscale egg-crate structure, as well as its resistance to mechanical deformation are analyzed theoretically. Experiments show that the optical performance together with self-cleaning or anti-fogging behavior of the inverted nanocone topography is comparable to earlier designs that have used periodic arrays of nanocones to control reflection and wetting. However the egg-crate structures are far superior in terms of mechanical robustness, and the ability to replicate this topography through several generations is promising for large-scale commercial applications where multifunctionality is important.

Fabrication of a Microscale Device for Detection of Nitroaromatic Compounds

Polymer layers displaying a specific swelling response in the presence of nitroaromatic compounds are integrated into microscale sensors. Blanket layers of the polymer are grown using initiated chemical vapor deposition, and lithographic techniques are used to define microscale polymer lines. A nanoscale metal line is perpendicularly overlaid across each polymer line. Exposure to nitroaromatic analytes causes the polymeric device component to expand, resulting in plastic deformation of the metal and a permanent change in the resistance measured across the device. The response is rapid and selective for nitroaromatic compounds; additionally, the small area, simplicity, and interchangeability of the device design facilitate the fabrication of sensors selective for other analytes and device arrays. Calculated limits of detection for 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene are 3.7 ppb at 20°C or 0.8 pg in a proof-of-concept device; methods for optimization are explored.

Conical photonic crystals for enhancing light extraction efficiency from high refractive index materials.

We propose, analyze and optimize a two-dimensional conical photonic crystal geometry to enhance light extraction from a high refractive index material, such as an inorganic scintillator. The conical geometry suppresses Fresnel reflections at an optical interface due to adiabatic impedance matching from a gradient index effect. The periodic array of cone structures with a pitch larger than the wavelength of light diffracts light into higher-order modes with different propagating angles, enabling certain photons to overcome total internal reflection (TIR). The numerical simulation shows simultaneous light yield gains relative to a flat surface both below and above the critical angle and how key parameters affect the light extraction efficiency. Our optimized design provides a 46% gain in light yield when the conical photonic crystals are coated on an LSO (cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate) scintillator.

Assembling nanoparticle catalysts with nanospheres for periodic carbon nanotube structure growth.

We have developed a novel method to grow carbon nanotubes in a periodic structure using a simple one-step self-assembly process. In this approach, monodispersed nanospheres are utilized to assemble smaller nanoparticle catalysts into an ordered periodic pattern. Using this process, we have grown carbon nanotube bundles into a honeycomb structure. The proposed method eliminates the need for lithography and material deposition, greatly reducing the fabrication complexity and cost.

Simple fabrication of ultrahigh aspect ratio nanostructures for enhanced antireflectivity

In this work, the authors present a novel fabrication process to create periodic nanostructures with aspect ratio as high as 9.6. These nanostructures reduce spectral reflectance of silicon to less than 4% over the broad wavelength region from 200 to 2000 nm. At the visible range of the spectrum, from 200 to 650 nm, reflectivity is reduced to less than 0.1%. The aspect ratio and reflectance performance that the authors achieved have never been reported before for ordered tapered nanostructures, to our knowledge.

Superoleophilic Titania Nanoparticle Coatings with Fast Fingerprint Decomposition and High Transparency

Low surface tension sebaceous liquids such as human fingerprint oils are readily deposited on high energy surfaces such as clean glass, leaving smudges that significantly lower transparency. There have been several attempts to prevent formation of these dactylograms on glass by employing oil-repellent textured surfaces. However, nanotextured superoleophobic coatings typically scatter visible light, and the intrinsic thermodynamic metastability of the composite superoleophobic state can result in failure of the oil repellency under moderate contact pressure. We develop titania-based porous nanoparticle coatings that are superoleophilic and highly transparent and which exhibit short time scales for decomposition of fingerprint oils under ultraviolet light. The mechanism by which a typical dactylogram is consumed combines wicking of the sebum into the nanoporous titania structure followed by photocatalytic degradation. We envision a wide range of applications because these TiO2 nanostructured surfaces remain photocatalytically active against fingerprint oils in natural sunlight and are also compatible with flexible glass substrates.

Fabrication of ultra high aspect ratio silica nanocone arrays by multiple shrinking mask etching

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel method to fabricate subwavelength silica nanocone arrays with high aspect ratio (~7) for multifunctional surfaces having anti-reflective, self-cleaning, and anti-fogging properties.

Mass replication of multifunctional surface by nanoimprint of high aspect ratio tapered nanostructures

Tapered nanostructures with high aspect ratio were fabricated using high-throughput nanoimprint process. The replicated nanostructures have axially increasing effective refractive index, which enhances the optical transmission over a wide range of wavelengths and incident angles.