Tural Khudiyev

Arrays of indefinitely long uniform nanowires and nanotubes

Nanowires are arguably the most studied nanomaterial model to make functional devices and arrays. Although there is remarkable maturity in the chemical synthesis of complex nanowire structures, their integration and interfacing to macro systems with high yields and repeatability still require elaborate aligning, positioning and interfacing and post-synthesis techniques. Top-down fabrication methods for nanowire production, such as lithography and electrospinning, have not enjoyed comparable growth. Here we report a new thermal size-reduction process to produce well-ordered, globally oriented, indefinitely long nanowire and nanotube arrays with different materials. The new technique involves iterative co-drawing of hermetically sealed multimaterials in compatible polymer matrices similar to fibre drawing. Globally oriented, endlessly parallel, axially and radially uniform semiconducting and piezoelectric nanowire and nanotube arrays hundreds of metres long, with nanowire diameters less than 15 nm, are obtained. The resulting nanostructures are sealed inside a flexible substrate, facilitating the handling of and electrical contacting to the nanowires. Inexpensive, high-throughput, multimaterial nanowire arrays pave the way for applications including nanowire-based large-area flexible sensor platforms, phase-changememory, nanostructure-enhanced photovoltaics, semiconductor nanophotonics, dielectric metamaterials,linear and nonlinear photonics and nanowire-enabled high-performance composites.

Superhydrophobic and omnidirectional antireflective surfaces from nanostructured ormosil colloids.

A large-area superhydrophobic and omnidirectional antireflective nanostructured organically modified silica coating has been designed and prepared. The coating mimics the self-cleaning property of superhydrophobic lotus leaves and omnidirectional broad band antireflectivity of moth compound eyes, simultaneously. Water contact and sliding angles of the coating are around 160° and 10°, respectively. Coating improves the transmittance of the glass substrate around 4%, when coated on a single side of a glass, in visible and near-infrared region at normal incidence angles. At oblique incidence angles (up to 60°) improvement in transmission reaches to around 8%. In addition, coatings are mechanically stable against impact of water droplets from considerable heights. We believe that our inexpensive and durable multifunctional coatings are suitable for stepping out of the laboratory to practical outdoor applications.

Structural Coloring in Large Scale Core–Shell Nanowires

We demonstrated two complementary size-dependent structural coloring mechanisms, interference and scattering, in indefinitely long core-shell nanowire arrays. The unusual nanostructures are comprised of an amorphous semiconducting core and a polymer shell layer with disparate refractive indices but with similar thermomechanical properties. Core-shell nanowires are mass produced from a macroscopic semiconductor rod by using a new top-to-bottom fabrication approach based on thermal size reduction. Nanostructures with diameters from 30 to 200 nm result in coloration that spans the whole visible spectrum via resonant Mie scattering. Nanoshell coloration based on thin film interference is proposed as a structural coloration mechanism which becomes dominant for nanowires having 700-1200 nm diameter. Controlled color generation in any part of visible and infrared spectral regions can be achieved by the simple scaling down procedure. Spectral color generation in mass-produced uniform core-shell nanowire arrays paves the way for applications such as spectral authentication at nanoscale, light-scattering ingredients in paints and cosmetics, large-area devices, and infrared shielding.

Room temperature large-area nanoimprinting for broadband biomimetic antireflection surfaces

Ordered arrays of subwavelength hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) nanorods on glass substrates are fabricated using room temperature nanoimprint lithography and anodized aluminum oxide membranes. Moth-eye type nanorod arrays exhibited superior omnidirectional antireflection characteristics in visible wavelengths. The ellipsometric measurements revealed that average specular reflection is remaining below 1% up to 55° incidence angles. Transmission measurements at normal incidence resulted in significant increase in transmitted light intensity with respect to plain glass. Simulations showed that up to 99% transmission could be obtained from double sided tapered HSQ nanorod arrays on HSQ thin film and glass substrates. Achieving large-area, broadband and omnidirectional antireflective surfaces on glass pave the way for applications including photovoltaics.

Soft biomimetic tapered nanostructures for large-area antireflective surfaces and SERS sensing†

We report a facile fabrication method for the fabrication of functional large area nanostructured polymer films using a drop casting technique. Reusable and tapered silicon molds were utilized in the production of functional polymers providing rapid fabrication of the paraboloid nanostructures at the desired structural heights without the requirement of any complex production conditions, such as high temperature or pressure. The fabricated polymer films demonstrate promising qualities in terms of antireflective, hydrophobic and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) features. We achieved up to 92% transmission from the single-side nanostructured polymer films by implementing optimized nanostructure parameters which were determined using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method prior to production. Large-area nanostructured films were observed to enhance the Raman signal with an enhancement factor of 4.9 × 106 compared to bare film, making them potentially suitable as free-standing SERS substrates. The utilized fabrication method with its demonstrated performances and reliable material properties, paves the way for further possibilities in biological, optical, and electronic applications.

Biomimicry of multifunctional nanostructures in the neck feathers of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos L.) drakes

Biological systems serve as fundamental sources of inspiration for the development of artificially colored devices, and their investigation provides a great number of photonic design opportunities. While several successful biomimetic designs have been detailed in the literature, conventional fabrication techniques nonetheless remain inferior to their natural counterparts in complexity, ease of production and material economy. Here, we investigate the iridescent neck feathers of Anas platyrhynchos drakes, show that they feature an unusual arrangement of two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals and further exhibit a superhydrophobic surface, and mimic this multifunctional structure using a nanostructure composite fabricated by a recently developed top-down iterative size reduction method, which avoids the above-mentioned fabrication challenges, provides macroscale control and enhances hydrophobicity through the surface structure. Our 2D solid core photonic crystal fibres strongly resemble drake neck plumage in structure and fully polymeric material composition, and can be produced in wide array of colors by minor alterations during the size reduction process.

Non-resonant Mie scattering: Emergent optical properties of core-shell polymer nanowires

We provide the in-depth characterization of light-polymer nanowire interactions in the context of an effective Mie scattering regime associated with low refractive index materials. Properties of this regime sharply contrast with these of resonant Mie scattering, and involve the formation of strictly forward-scattered and coupling-free optical fields in the vicinity of core-shell polymer nanowires. Scattering from these optical fields is shown to be non-resonant in nature and independent from incident polarization. In order to demonstrate the potential utility of this scattering regime in one-dimensional (1D) polymeric nanostructures, we fabricate polycarbonate (PC) - polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) core-shell nanowires using a novel iterative thermal drawing process that yields uniform and indefinitely long core-shell nanostructures. These nanowires are successfully engineered for novel nanophotonics applications, including size-dependent structural coloration, efficient light capture on thin-film solar cells, optical nano-sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity and a mask-free photolithography method suitable for the straightforward production of 1D nanopatterns.

Superenhancers: Novel opportunities for nanowire optoelectronics

Nanowires play a crucial role in the development of new generation optoelectronic devices ranging from photovoltaics to photodetectors, as these designs capitalize on the low material usage, utilize leaky-mode optical resonances and possess high conversion efficiencies associated with nanowire geometry. However, their current schemes lack sufficient absorption capacity demanded for their practical applicability, and more efficient materials cannot find widespread usage in these designs due to their rarity and cost. Here we suggest a novel and versatile nanoconcentrator scheme utilizing unique optical features of non-resonant Mie (NRM) scattering regime associated with low-index structures. The scattering regime is highly compatible with resonant Mie absorption effect taking place in nanowire absorbers. This technique in its optimized forms can provide up to 1500% total absorption enhancement, 400-fold material save and is suitable for large-area applications with significant area preservation compared to thin-film of same materials. Proposed superenhancer concept with its exceptional features such as broadband absorption enhancement, polarization immunity and material-independent manner paves the way for development of efficient nanowire photosensors or solar thermophotovoltaic devices and presents novel design opportunities for self-powered nanosystems.

Anemone-like nanostructures for non-lithographic, reproducible, large-area, and ultra-sensitive SERS substrates

The melt-infiltration technique enables the fabrication of complex nanostructures for a wide range of applications in optics, electronics, biomaterials, and catalysis. Here, anemone-like nanostructures are produced for the first time under the surface/interface principles of melt-infiltration as a non-lithographic method. Functionalized anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes are used as templates to provide large-area production of nanostructures, and polycarbonate (PC) films are used as active phase materials. In order to understand formation dynamics of anemone-like structures finite element method (FEM) simulations are performed and it is found that wetting behaviour of the polymer is responsible for the formation of cavities at the caps of the structures. These nanostructures are examined in the surface-enhanced-Raman-spectroscopy (SERS) experiment and they exhibit great potential in this field. Reproducible SERS signals are detected with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 7.2-12.6% for about 10,000 individual spots. SERS measurements are demonstrated at low concentrations of Rhodamine 6G (R6G), even at the picomolar level, with an enhancement factor of ∼10(11). This high enhancement factor is ascribed to the significant electric field enhancement at the cavities of nanostructures and nanogaps between them, which is supported by finite difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. These novel nanostructured films can be further optimized to be used in chemical and plasmonic sensors and as a single molecule SERS detection platform.

Tailoring self-organized nanostructured morphologies in kilometer-long polymer fiber

While nanowires and nanospheres have been utilized in the design of a diverse array of nanoscale devices, recent schemes frequently require nanoscale architectures of higher complexity. However, conventional techniques are largely unsatisfactory for the production of more intricate nanoscale shapes and patterns, and even successful fabrication methods are incompatible with large-scale production efforts. Novel top-down, iterative size reduction (ISR)-mediated approaches have recently been shown to be promising for the production of high-throughput cylindrical and spherical nanostructures, though more complex architectures have yet to be created using this process. Here we report the presence of a hitherto-undescribed transitory region between nanowire and nanosphere transformation, where a diverse array of complex quasi one-dimensional nanostructures is produced by Rayleigh-Plateau instability-mediated deformation during the progress of a combined ISR/thermal instability technique. Temperature-based tailoring of architecturally diverse, indefinitely long, globally parallel, complex nanostructure arrays with high uniformity and low size variation facilitates the development of in-fiber or free-standing nanodevices with significant advantages over on-chip devices.