Plasmonic Metasurface Absorber by Transfer Printing

Metasurfaces are capable of manipulating photons at subwavelength scale, introducing the field of flat optics. Combined with metals, outstanding properties such as high optical absorption and thermal and electrical... [ view full abstract ]

Metasurfaces are capable of manipulating photons at subwavelength scale, introducing the field of flat optics. Combined with metals, outstanding properties such as high optical absorption and thermal and electrical conductivity can be achieved at the same time. However, the fabrication of metasurfaces often relies on rather complicated and expensive production methods. Here, we present a versatile and cost-efficient fabrication method for a highly conductive black plasmonic metasurface. It consists of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) transfer printed onto a silver film using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp. According to numerical simulations, gap plasmon modes between the AgNPs and the silver film are the origin of increased absorption. Further on, it is revealed that the size of the AgNPs has to be varied on subwavelength scale to further increase the spectral width and efficiency of the absorption. We achieve this control of AgNP size by modifying the surface curvature of the PDMS stamp with a commercially available sinusoidal grating relief. An absorption of up to 97% for p-polarized light and above 70% for unpolarized light in the spectral range from near-UV to near-IR is observed for a broad range of incidence angles. These results show that our approach combines the advantages of metasurfaces with cost-efficient large area fabrication methods for upcoming generations of optical systems, sensors, nonlinear optics, heat management systems and solar energy harvesting devices.