Post-doctorate on hybridization of block copolymer thin films with optical nanoresonators for funct

Nanophotonics often rely on optically resonant nanostructures for the control and manipulation of light. Two types of optically resonant nanostructures are generally considered. Localized plasmons at metal/dielectrics interfaces provide strong resonances, while high index dielectric nanoobjects present strong and low-loss resonances. This has encouraged, in the recent years, active research efforts towards  the fabrication of nanostructured metal/dielectric or low index/high index dielectric materials and surfaces. Most nanophotonic systems  have been built by high-tech lithographic approaches using microelectronics technologies. These top-down approaches, though very  precise in making ordered structures, are highly cost-, time- and energy-intensive, especially for sub-100nm resonator sizes (for visible  wavelengths), so that produced samples are usually restricted to very small lateral dimensions and thicknesses.

Alternative fabrication  methodologies have been developed based on colloidal chemistry, self- and directed-assembly and soft matter physics. In particular, we  have developed a straightforward and versatile nanofabrication method, using self-assembling block copolymers for the “bottom-up”  formulation of many different nanostructured surfaces, from simple metallic hexagonal dots or continuous metallic lines to more complex   structures such as raspberry-like bimetallic nanoclusters. We are hiring a young researcher to work on the fabrication and optical study of such nanostructured surfaces. Applications in the fields of metamaterials and metasurfaces, solar cell design, or other functional materials will be investigated.

The hired researcher will be working in two different laboratories, the LCPO in a team expert in the formulation and study of nanostructured polymer thin films and the CRPP in a group working on self-assembled metamaterials and metasurfaces. The work program will be pluridisciplinary, going from the fabrication using simple polymer physics methods, to the structural study, using X-ray Reflectivity, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry, and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy, including at each step of the fabrication process. Besides, the optical properties of the nanostructured films will be studied by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and R and T spectroscopy, in close connection with numerical simulations performed in the CRPP team.