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.