Abstract
With narrow and dense nanoarchitectures increasingly adopted to improve optical functionality, achieving the complete wetting of photonic devices is required when aiming at underwater molecule detection over the water-repellent optical materials. Despite continuous advances in photonic applications, real-time monitoring of nanoscale wetting transitions across nanostructures with 10-nm gaps, the distance at which photonic performance is maximized, remains a chronic hurdle when attempting to quantify the water influx and molecules therein. For this reason, the present study develops a photonic switch that transforms the wetting transition into perceivable color changes using a liquid-permeable Fabry–Perot resonator. Electro-capillary-induced Cassie-to-Wenzel transitions produce an optical memory effect in the photonic switch, as confirmed by surface-energy analysis, simulations, and an experimental demonstration. The results show that controlling the wetting behavior using the proposed photonic switch is a promising strategy for the integration of aqueous media with photonic hotspots in plasmonic nanostructures such as biochemical sensors.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 2107060 |
Journal | Small |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 14 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 Apr 7 |
Keywords
- Fabry–Perot resonators
- nanogaps
- refractive index sensors
- tunable structural color
- wetting transition
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biotechnology
- Biomaterials
- Chemistry(all)
- Materials Science(all)