Self-assembled hexagonal double fishnets as negative index materials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the fabrication of negative index metamaterials in the near-infrared using colloidal lithography to create hexagonal double fishnet structures with tunable optical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-assembly fabrication method for negative index metamaterials with tunable electromagnetic responses in the near-infrared.

Findings

Successful fabrication of negative index metamaterials in the near-infrared.

Tunable optical properties by adjusting hole diameter.

Demonstration of both single and double negative index behaviors.

Abstract

We show experimentally the successful use of colloidal lithography for the fabrication of negative index metamaterials in the near-infrared wavelength range. In particular, we investigated a specific implementation of the widely studied double fishnet metamaterials, consisting of a gold-silica-gold layer stack perforated by a hexagonal array of round holes. Tuning of the hole diameter allows us to tailor these self-assembled metamaterials both as single- ({\epsilon} < 0) and double ({\epsilon} < 0 and {\mu} < 0) negative metamaterials.