Natural instability of semiconductors thin solid films for sensing and photonic applications
NARCISO “NAtuRal instability of semiConductors thIn SOlid films for sensing and photonic applications” is an interdisciplinary project merging physics, chemistry, material science, fluid dynamics, and photonics with a high potential for applications and industrial scale-up of the relevant results. We propose to exploit the natural instability of thin solid films (solid state dewetting of silicon and germanium, SSD) to form complex patterns and nano-architectures (e.g. monocrystalline atomically-smooth structures, disordered hyperuniform metamaterials) that cannot be implemented with conventional methods. These patters will be used as: i) epitaxial platforms for the growth of light-emitting III-V compounds; ii) hard-masters for nano-imprint lithography of metal oxides (e.g. TiO2, SiO2, ZnO, Al2O3) deposited via sol-gel dip-coating (soft-NIL) and printed on arbitrary substrates, with tunable chemical and physical properties (e.g. composition, porosity, wettability). Methods and structures will be optimized towards their exploitation in two main domains of application: 1) photonic devices (e.g. anti-reflection coatings, colour-filters, random lasers, quantum emitters) and 2) micro-fluidic devices for bio/chemical sensing and water filtering. NARCISO holds the state-of-the-art in SSD and soft-NIL and is already at work in their theoretical comprehension their experimental implementation and practical exploitation. Now NARCISO will combine these techniques bringing them to the leading-edge of micro-and nanostructuring over ultra-large scales and with methods compatible with an industrial scale-up. The presence of the non-academic member  Obducat Technologies is a strategic asset of the consortium as it is a major international actor in the nano-imprint lithography domain. It will provide the standard and needs for a realistic formulation of the relevant experimental methods and will demonstrate their implementation in a high-throughput industrial chain of production.