In this work, we investigate light concentration in nanoscale ridge apertures and its applications in nanomanufacturing. Optical transmission of ridge apertures in a metal film is optimized by numerical design using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. We show that ridge apertures provide an optical transmission enhancement of several orders of magnitude higher than regularly shaped...

We present a rotating-tip-based mechanical nanomanufacturing technique, referred to here as nanomilling. An atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe tip that is rotated at high speeds by out-of-phase motions of the axes of a three-axis piezoelectric actuator is used as the nanotool. By circumventing the high-compliance AFM beam and directly attaching the tip onto the piezoelectric actuator, a high-s...

Van der Waals adhesion between graphene and various substrates has an important impact on the physical properties, device applications and nanomanufacturing processes of graphene. Here we report a general, high-throughput and reliable method that can measure adhesion energies between ultraflat graphene and a broad range of materials using atomic force microscopy with a microsphere tip. In our e...

Identification of exfoliated graphene flakes and classification the thickness are important in nanomanufacturing advanced materials devices. This paper presents a deep learning method to automatically identify classify on Si/SiO2 substrates from optical microscope images. The presented framework uses hierarchical convolutional neural network that is capable new images while preserving knowledge...

In certain manufacturing processes, product quality is characterized by spatial profiles, and such profiles are expected to meet specific shape requirements. As profile shapes are affected by process conditions, properly adjusted process variables are expected to help improve profile quality. This work aims to achieve desired shapes of profiles that are sensitive to the variation of noise facto...

Nanostructured surfaces with quasi-random geometries can manipulate light over broadband wavelengths and wide ranges of angles. Optimization and realization of stochastic patterns have typically relied on serial, direct-write fabrication methods combined with real-space design. However, this approach is not suitable for customizable features or scalable nanomanufacturing. Moreover, trial-and-er...