Photonic metasurfaces in azobenzene materials

Title : Photonic metasurfaces in azobenzene materials

Abstract:

Custom optical fixtures were machined in-house and used to fabricate, in a single step photolithography technique, large-scale photonic metasurfaces, which include quasicrystals and Moiré gratings at the nanoscale on azobenzene molecular glass thin films. The obtained metasurfaces have customizable features depending on the fabrication parameters and the optical setup, which consists mostly of simple optical elements such as multi-faced pyramids, bi-convex lenses, Lloyd interferometer, and a continuous-wave laser for generating the desired interference pattern. Furthermore, these photonic metasurfaces have been used in applications ranging from optical biosensors to enhancing the efficiency of thin film solar cells.

Biography:

Prof. Sabat is a professor of physics at the Royal Military College of Canada. He obtained his PhD from the same institution in 2009. His research group has an expertise in optical materials, nanotechnology, and photonics. Their main research thrust is on the laser fabrication of optical nanostructures, microstructures and metasurfaces in photomechanical azobenzene thin films. After fabrication, these films, having customizable surface features including biomimicry, exhibit interesting plasmonic and optical properties which are well-suited for incorporation in practical devices such as diffraction gratings, electro-optical modulators, light waveguides, light-based sensors and biosensors, thin film solar cells, active optical coatings, selective spectroscopy surfaces and all types of imaging devices and applications.