Chemical Vapor Deposition of Spherical Amorphous Selenium Mie Resonators for Infrared Meta-Optics

Applying direct growth and deposition of optical surfaces holds great promise for the advancement of future nanophotonic technologies. Here, we report on a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique for depositing amorphous selenium (a-Se) spheres by desorption of selenium from Bi2Se3 and re-adsorption on the substrate. We utilize this process to grow scalable, large area Se spheres on several substrates and characterize their Mie-resonant response in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range. We demonstrate size-tunable Mie resonances spanning the 2-16 mu m spectral range for single isolated resonators and large area ensembles. We further demonstrate strong absorption dips of up to 90% in ensembles of particles in a broad MIR range. Finally, we show that ultra-high-Q resonances arise in the case where Se Mie-resonators are coupled to low-loss epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) substrates. These findings demonstrate the enabling potential of amorphous Selenium as a versatile and tunable nanophotonic material that may open up avenues for on-chip MIR spectroscopy, chemical sensing, spectral imaging, and large area metasurface fabrication.

Automated summary

A chemical vapor deposition technique has been utilized to deposit amorphous selenium spheres on various substrates and characterize their Mie-resonant response in the mid-infrared spectral range. The amorphous selenium spheres demonstrate size-tunable Mie resonances and strong absorption dips of up to 90% in a broad MIR range. Furthermore, ultra-high-Q resonances are observed when Se Mie-resonators are coupled to low-loss epsilon-near-zero substrates.