Fabrication of metamaterials in the optical spectral range

Recently, the fabrication and optimization of nano-hole arrays in multi-layers has attracted much attention for their interesting applications in nano-optics and biosensing. In particular nano-hole arrays in metal-dielectric-metal stacks, also known as "fish-net" type structures, actually are the best candidates to accomplish some suggestive physical phenomena like negative refractive index, super-lensing and invisibility cloaks in the optical spectral range. Here, we report our preliminary results on the nanofabrication of "fish-net" type Au/dielectric/Au metamaterial stacks. Nano-hole arrays have been realized on Au (30 nm)-dielectric (50 nm)-Au (30 nm)/ITO stacks by means of direct ion milling with FIB using a FEI Nova 600i instrument. Finite element method (FEM) simulations were used to design the structures and to foresee their optical behavior. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.