Oxide nanocrystal based nanocomposites for fabricating photoplastic AFM probes.

We report on the synthesis, characterization and application of a novel nanocomposite made of a negative tone epoxy based photoresist modified with organic-capped Fe(2)O(3) nanocrystals (NCs). The mechanical properties of the nanocomposite drastically improve upon incorporation of a suitable concentration of NCs in the polymer, without deteriorating its photolithography performance. High aspect ratio 3D microstructures made of the nanocomposite have been fabricated with a uniform surface morphology and with a resolution down to few micrometres.

Modification of spontaneous emission of (CdSe)ZnS nanocrystals embedded in nanoimprinted photonic crystals.

Highly luminescent (CdSe)ZnS nanocrystals, with band edge emission in the red region of the visible spectrum, were successfully synthesized and incorporated in a resist, namely mr-NIL 6000. The nanocomposite material was imprinted by using conventional nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process. We report on the fabrication and characterization of nanoimprinted photonic crystals in this new functional material.

Photoluminescence enhancement in nanoimprinted photonic crystals and coupled surface plasmons.

A method to enhance the photoluminescence of dye chromophores-loaded by coupling the emission to surface plasmons in nanoimprinted photonic crystals is reported. A 9-fold enhancement in the spontaneous emission intensity of a rhodamine-doped polymer film is achieved on a silver layer due to surface plasmon excitation. By changing the surface plasmon frequency, this enhancement can be suppressed.

Transversal ultrahigh-resolution polarizationsensitive optical coherence tomography for strain mapping in materials.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and its extension, polarization-sensitive (PS-)OCT, are techniques for contactless and nondestructive imaging of internal structures. In this work, we apply PS-OCT for material characterization. We use a transversal scanning, ultra-high resolution (UHR-)PS-OCT setup providing cross-sectional as well as inplane information about the internal microstructure, the birefringence and the orientation of the optical axis within the material.