Wafer-Scale 200 mm Metal Oxide Infrared Metasurface with Tailored Differential Emissivity Response in the Atmospheric Windows

Metasurfaces with sub-wavelength nanoscale features have emerged as a platform to achieve desirable electromagnetic responses. However, it remains technically challenging to fabricate metasurfaces in large size and at low cost for mass production. This work demonstrates a 200 mm wafer-scale Al:ZnO metasurface coating based on deep-UV lithography. The metasurfaces are targeted to achieve infrared (IR) reflectivity and emissivity characteristics at bandwidths across the two atmospheric windows in the IR spectrum. The wafers demonstrate a high uniformity of optical response with tailored reflectivity of around 50% at the 3-5 mu m mid-wave IR band and less than 10% at the 8-13 mu m long-wave IR band. This article furthermore shows that the design principle allows achieving a wide range of dual-band reflectivity values using a single underlying materials stack, offering a versatile platform. The proposed approach is compatible with CMOS-compatible mass-production manufacturing and brings IR metasurface coatings closer to commercially relevant and scalable technology.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates a large-scale aluminum zinc oxide metasurface coating based on deep-UV lithography, which can achieve a wide range of dual-band reflectivity values and brings commercially relevant and scalable technology closer to infrared metasurface coatings.