When metal nanoparticles are arranged in an ordered array, they may scatter light to produce diffracted waves. If one of the diffracted waves then propagates in the plane of the array, it may couple the localized plasmon resonances associated with individual nanoparticles together, leading to an exciting phenomenon, the drastic narrowing of plasmon resonances, down to 1–2 nm in spectral width. This presents a dramatic improvement compared to a typical single particle resonance line width of >80 nm. The very high quality factors of these diffractively coupled plasmon resonances, often referred to as plasmonic surface lattice resonances, and related effects have made this topic a very active and exciting field for fundamental research, and increasingly, these resonances have been investigated for their potential in the development of practical devices for communications, optoelectronics, photovoltaics, data storage, biosensing, and other applications. In the present review article, we describe the basic phy...

Plasmonic Surface Lattice Resonances: A Review of Properties and Applications

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a high throughput, high-resolution parallel patterning method in which a surface pattern of a stamp is replicated into a material by mechanical contact and three dimensional material displacement. This can be done by shaping a liquid followed by a curing process for hardening, by variation of the thermomechanical properties of a film by heating and cooling, or by any other kind of shaping process using the difference in hardness of a mold and a moldable material. The local thickness contrast of the resulting thin molded film can be used as a means to pattern an underlying substrate on wafer level by standard pattern transfer methods, but also directly in applications where a bulk modified functional layer is needed. Therefore it is mainly aimed toward fields in which electron beam and high-end photolithography are costly and do not provide sufficient resolution at reasonable throughput. The aim of this review is to play between two poles: the need to establish standard processes and tools for research and industry, and the issues that make NIL a scientific endeavor. It is not the author’s intention to duplicate the content of the reviews already published, but to look on the NIL process as a whole. The author will also address some issues, which are not covered by the other reviews, e.g., the origin of NIL and the misconceptions, which sometimes dominate the debate about problems of NIL, and guide the reader to issues, which are often forgotten or overlooked.

/pdf/nanoimprint-lithography-an-old-story-in-modern-times-a-2lq7ufuk7g.pdf

Nanoimprint lithography: An old story in modern times? A review

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/90866/1/Size-dependent%20plasticity%20in_TSpace.pdf

Size-dependent plasticity in an Nb25Mo25Ta25W25 refractory high-entropy alloy

The discovery of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) has stimulated widespread research enthusiasm because of their technological promise for practical applications and scientific importance in understanding glass formation and glass phenomena. Arising from their disordered atomic structure and unique glass-to-supercooled liquid transition, BMGs represent a new class of structural and functional materials with extraordinary properties including extreme strength at low temperature and high flexibility at high temperature, along with a number of superior chemical and physical properties. This article covers the general properties of BMGs based on a review of the historical milestones in metallic glass research, and recent progress on several fundamental issues in the development of a comprehensive understanding of the strength, ductility and glass-forming ability of BMGs and, more importantly, the correlation of these parameters with atomic structure, focusing on the outstanding questions and critical issues that appear to warrant future research. Recent advances in the applications of BMGs in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biomedicine and nanotechnology are also reviewed.

/pdf/a-brief-overview-of-bulk-metallic-glasses-rgzm1t8a4i.pdf

A brief overview of bulk metallic glasses

On the in vitro and in vivo degradation performance and biological response of new biodegradable Mg-Y-Zn alloys.

Cytotoxicity of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses

Scaling in material properties is of great importance in microsystems and microelectronics where the device dimensions continuously shrink. Recently, compression tests of micron-sized pillars produced using a focused-ion beam (FIB) have become standard in the investigation of scaling effects. The influence of the fabrication process on the mechanical properties of the samples has, however, not been conclusively resolved. In this study, 130 silver pillars were fabricated using a novel embossing technique that does not pose the issues associated with FIB milling, i.e. surface amorphization and gallium contamination. Displacement-controlled compression tests on pillars with diameters of 130–3000 nm reveal for submicrometer samples an inverse proportionality of flow strength to diameter, which is associated with a wide strength distribution and a deformation taking place in large discrete strain bursts. The largest pillars show instead near bulk-like behavior. Unlike studies on other fcc materials, mechanical...

Deformation behavior of silver submicrometer-pillars prepared by nanoimprinting

Metal direct nanoimprinting for photonics

Deformation behavior of gold nano-pillars prepared by nanoimprinting and focused ion-beam milling

Metal direct nanoimprinting is a fabrication technique based on plastic deformation of ductile metals such as silver and gold pressed into a structured rigid mold. While this process can be exploited to manufacture metallic micro- and nanoparts by removing the mold after processing, it can also be used as a metallization method for producing two-dimensional metallo-dielectric composites. Dense silver-pillar arrays with diameters down to 140 nm, aspect ratios up to 13, and excellent uniformity over large areas were fabricated. The sample quality was confirmed by near-infrared optical reflectances of Si–Ag photonic crystals, which showed strong collective surface plasmon-polariton resonances.

/pdf/silver-high-aspect-ratio-micro-and-nanoimprinting-for-3phg3242ed.pdf

Stefano Buzzi

Papers

Cytotoxicity of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses

Deformation behavior of silver submicrometer-pillars prepared by nanoimprinting

Metal direct nanoimprinting for photonics

Deformation behavior of gold nano-pillars prepared by nanoimprinting and focused ion-beam milling

Silver high-aspect-ratio micro- and nanoimprinting for optical applications