Strong in-plane birefringence of spatially nanostructured silicon

Abstract

We report on a strong intrinsic optical anisotropy of Si induced by its dielectric patterning. As a result, an in-plane birefringence for nanostructured (110) Si surfaces is found to be 104 times stronger than that observed in bulk silicon crystals. We found the value of birefringence to be strongly dependent on the dielectric surrounding of the silicon nanoparticles assembling these layers. Beyond numerous potential implications for realization of optical devices and sensors, this gives a favorable route for studying the physics of condensation phenomena in a mesoscopic geometrical scale.