Self-Assembled Ordered Three-Phase Au-BaTiO3-ZnO Vertically Aligned Nanocomposites Achieved by a Templating Method

Complex multiphase nanocomposite designs present enormous opportunities for developing next-generation integrated photonic and electronic devices. Here, a unique three-phase nanostructure combining a ferroelectric BaTiO3, a wide-bandgap semiconductor of ZnO, and a plasmonic metal of Au toward multifunctionalities is demonstrated. By a novel two-step templated growth, a highly ordered Au-BaTiO3-ZnO nanocomposite in a unique nanoman-like form, i.e., self-assembled ZnO nanopillars and Au nanopillars in a BaTiO3 matrix, is realized, and is very different from the random three-phase ones with randomly arranged Au nanoparticles and ZnO nanopillars in the BaTiO3 matrix. The ordered three-phase nanoman-like structure provides unique functionalities such as obvious hyperbolic dispersion in the visible and near-infrared regime enabled by the highly anisotropic nanostructures compared to other random structures. Such a self-assembled and ordered three-phase nanocomposite is obtained through a combination of vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) and two-phase epitaxy growth mechanisms. The study opens up new possibilities in the design, growth, and application of multiphase structures and provides a new approach to engineer the ordering of complex nanocomposite systems with unprecedented control over electron-light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.