Mie resonance-enhanced light absorption in periodic silicon nanopillar arrays

Mie-resonances in vertical, small aspect-ratio and subwavelength silicon nanopillars are investigated using visible bright-field mu-reflection measurements and Raman scattering. Pillar-to-pillar interactions were examined by comparing randomly to periodically arranged arrays with systematic variations in nanopillar diameter and array pitch. First- and second-order Mie resonances are observed in reflectance spectra as pronounced dips with minimum reflectances of several percent, suggesting an alternative approach to fabricating a perfect absorber. The resonant wavelengths shift approximately linearly with nanopillar diameter, which enables a simple empirical description of the resonance condition. In addition, resonances are also significantly affected by array density, with an overall oscillating blue shift as the pitch is reduced. Finite-element method and finite-difference time-domain simulations agree closely with experimental results and provide valuable insight into the nature of the dielectric resonance modes, including a surprisingly small influence of the substrate on resonance wavelength. To probe local fields within the Si nanopillars, mu-Raman scattering measurements were also conducted that confirm enhanced optical fields in the pillars when excited on-resonance. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America