Nanoholes are a class of nanostructured material consisting of nanoscale voids in a surface of a material. Not to be confused with

nanofoam Nanofoams are a class of nanostructured, porous materials (foams) containing a significant population of pores with diameters less than 100 nm. Aerogels are one example of nanofoam. Metal Overview Metallic nanofoams are a subcategorization ...

nanoporous Nanoporous materials consist of a regular organic or inorganic bulk phase in which a porous structure is present. Nanoporous materials exhibit pore diameters that are most appropriately quantified using units of nanometers. The diameter of pores i ...

materials which support a network of voids permeating throughout the material (often in a disordered state), nanohole materials feature a regular hole pattern extending through a single surface. These can be thought of as the inverse of a

nanopillar Nanopillars is an emerging technology within the field of nanostructures. Nanopillars are pillar shaped nanostructures approximately 10 nanometers in diameter that can be grouped together in lattice like arrays. They are a type of metamaterial, whi ...

nanowire A nanowire is a nanostructure in the form of a wire with the diameter of the order of a nanometre (10−9 metres). More generally, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less ...

structure.

Uses

Nanohole structures have been used for a variety of applications, ranging from

superlenses A superlens, or super lens, is a lens which uses metamaterials to go beyond the diffraction limit. For example, in 1995, Guerra combined a transparent grating having 50nm lines and spaces (the "metamaterial") with a conventional microscope immersion ...

produced from a metal nanohole array, to structured photovoltaic devices used to improve carrier extraction, and light absorption. Nanohole structures are also extensively utilized for the creation of

photonic crystals A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomi ...

, particularly for creating photonic crystal

waveguides A waveguide is a structure that guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Without the physical constraint of a waveguide, wave intensities de ...

References

{{reflist Nanotechnology Photonics

Uses

See also

References