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    Merging Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Fabricate Artificial Photonic Nanomaterials with a Deterministic Electric and Magnetic Response
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2020) Dietrich K.; Zilk M.; Steglich M.; Siefke T.; Hübner U.; Pertsch T.; Rockstuhl C.; Tünnermann A.; Kley E.-B.
    Artificial photonic nanomaterials made from densely packed scatterers are frequently realized either by top-down or bottom-up techniques. While top-down techniques offer unprecedented control over achievable geometries for the scatterers, by trend they suffer from being limited to planar and periodic structures. In contrast, materials fabricated with bottom-up techniques do not suffer from such disadvantages but, unfortunately, they offer only little control on achievable geometries for the scatterers. To overcome these limitations, a nanofabrication strategy is introduced that merges both approaches. A large number of scatterers are fabricated with a tailored optical response by fast character projection electron-beam lithography and are embedded into a membrane. By peeling-off this membrane from the substrate, scrambling, and densifying it, a bulk material comprising densely packed and randomly arranged scatterers is obtained. The fabrication of an isotropic material from these scatterers with a strong electric and magnetic response is demonstrated. The approach of this study unlocks novel opportunities to fabricate nanomaterials with a complex optical response in the bulk but also on top of arbitrarily shaped surfaces. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Edge states and topological insulating phases generated by curving a nanowire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
    (College Park : American Physical Society, 2015) Gentile, Paola; Cuoco, Mario; Ortix, Carmine
    We prove that curvature effects in low-dimensional nanomaterials can promote the generation of topological states of matter by considering the paradigmatic example of quantum wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which are bent in a nanoscale periodic serpentine structure. The effect of the periodic curvature generally results in the appearance of insulating phases with a corresponding novel butterfly spectrum characterized by the formation of finite measure complex regions of forbidden energies. When the Fermi energy lies in the gaps, the system displays localized end states protected by topology. We further show that for certain superstructure periods the system possesses topologically nontrivial insulating phases at half filling. Our results suggest that the local curvature and the topology of the electronic states are inextricably intertwined in geometrically deformed nanomaterials.