| Dec 24, 2020 |
A very special (and tiny) Christmas tree(Nanowerk News) The team at the the L2n laboratory (Light, nanomaterials & nanotechnologies) at the University of Technology of Troyes have fabricated a very special Christmas card this year. |
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| The structure was designed and made by optical lithography by William d'Orsonnens (PhD student at the L2n) and Ali Issa (post-doctorate fellow at the L2n). |
| The structure and all details are made of polymer hardened by the scanning of a focused laser beam. To give you an idea of the size, the foot of the Christmas tree is 23 micrometer long, which is roughly 2 to 3 times smaller than the thickness of a strand of hair. |
| On top of it, the researchers grafted polystyrene nanospheres with a diameter of 200 nanometers – i.e. 100 times smaller than the foot of the tree – which provides the red color. |
| Scaling down even further, the green color results from semiconductor nanocrystals with a size of 6 nanometers only, thus 30 times smaller than the nanospheres of polystyrene. |
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| Polystyrene nanospheres attached to the tree structure. (Image: L2n lab, University of Technology of Troyes (click on image to enlarge) |
| The techniques to make this tree have been developed for the last few years at the L2n lab by different researchers (see references below): |
| Process for Functionalizing a Surface of a Solid Support with Nano- or Microparticles Safi Jradi, Ali Issa, Irene Izquierdo-Lorenzo. Brevet à paraître (2021). |
| One strategy for nanoparticles assembly into 1D, 2D and 3D polymer micro and nanostructures. Submitted (2021). |
| Hybrid plasmonic nano-emitters with controlled single quantum emitter positioning on the local excitation field. Nature Communications 11, 3414 (2020). |
| 3D Photoluminescent Nanostructures Containing Quantum Dots Fabricated by Two-Photon Polymerization: Influence of Quantum Dots on the Spatial Resolution of Laser Writing. Advanced Materials Technologies 4, 1800522 (2018). |
| Wavelength-scale light concentrator made by direct 3D laser writing of polymer metamaterials. Scientific Reports 6, 33627 (2016). |
| Two-Color Single Hybrid Plasmonic Nanoemitters with Real Time Switchable Dominant Emission Wavelength. Nano Letters 15, 7458 (2015). |
| Source: L2n lab, University of Technology of Troyes | |
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