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Effects of nanorod’s scattering cross-section on the light-trapping of

subwavelength nanorod arrays

Xiaojian Yu, Chaogang Lou, Hao Zhang, Xiaodan Huang, Hua Yang

PII: S0030-4026(19)31891-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2019.163992
Reference: IJLEO 163992

To appear in: Optik

Received Date: 22 October 2019

Accepted Date: 4 December 2019

Please cite this article as: Yu X, Lou C, Zhang H, Huang X, Yang H, Effects of nanorod’s
scattering cross-section on the light-trapping of subwavelength nanorod arrays, Optik (2019),
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2019.163992

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Effects of nanorod’s scattering cross-section on the light-trapping of

subwavelength nanorod arrays

Xiaojian Yu, Chaogang Lou*, Hao Zhang, Xiaodan Huang, Hua Yang

Joint International Research Laboratory of Information Display and Visualization, School of Electronic

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Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

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*Corresponding author. E-mail address: lcg@seu.edu.cn

Highlights
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 The different scatter cross-sections of nanorods may result in different light-trapping mechanisms of nanorod
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arrays
 The reflection and transmission of nanorod arrays depend on the interference between back-scattered light and
reflected light when the total scatter cross-section can not cover the whole substrate’s surface
 The reflection and transmission of nanorod arrays depend on the interference between the back-scattered light of
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neighbouring nanorods when the total scatter cross-section is bigger than the whole substrate’s surface
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Abstract
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The different radii of the nanorods bring different scattering cross-sections. This results in the

different light-trapping mechanisms of nanorod arrays when the nanorods have different radii. If the

total scatter cross-section of all nanorods of the arrays is smaller than the whole surface of the substrates,

the reflection and the transmission depend on the interference between the light back-scattered by the

nanorods and the light reflected by the substrate’s surface. When the scatter is strong enough to make
the whole surface of the substrate be covered by the total scattering cross-section of the nanorods, the

light-trapping is determined by the interference between the light scattered by neighbouring nanorods.

Keywords: Nanorod; Transmission; Reflection; Scatter cross-section

1. Introduction

In past decades, subwavelength nanorod arrays attracted much attention because they can lower

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largely the reflection of light [1-4]. So far, a lot of efforts have been paid in this area, involving materials

[5-7], structures [8-11] and fabrication [12-15], etc. In order to get low reflection and high transmission,

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it is important to clarify the light-trapping mechanism of the arrays. Many researches have been done to

explain the phenomenon [21-26]. These works improved our understanding greatly, but there are still
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some details which need to be clarified. For example, the scattering intensity of the nanorods should
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have effects on the reflection and transmission of the nanorod arrays, but it has not been discussed in

publications so far.
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In this work, we propose a new explanation about the light-trapping of the subwavelength nanorod

arrays by considering the effect of the nanorod’s scattering cross-section on the reflection and
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transmission. By simulating the scatter of the nanorods with two different radii (50 nm and 100 nm), two

types of light-trapping mechanisms about the reflection and transmission of the nanorod arrays are
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given.

2. Theoretical Model
 Figure 1a and b shows the schematic of periodic nanorod arrays and the simulated model,

respectively. Si nanorods are located on Si substrates. Two nanorod’s radii used in the simulation are 50

nm and 100 nm. The height of the nanorods is 135 nm. The top and bottom ends of the model are perfect

matched layer (PML) to eliminate the influence of the reflection at the both ends. The other four faces

have periodic boundary conditions. The incident wavelength is set as 1μm, much longer than the period

of the nanorod arrays in order to avoid the effect of diffraction in air (actually there exists diffracted

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waves inside Si substrates). The real part of the refractive index of Si is 3.57 and its imaginary part is

0.001. The direction of the incident light is perpendicular to the surface of the substrates.

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3. Results and Discussion e-
If the radius of the nanorods is 50 nm, the scatter is not strong and the scatter coefficient is 0.21697.
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This means that the scatter cross-section is smaller than the cross-section of the nanorods. So the

incident light can be divided into two parts: some is scattered by the nanorods and the rest is reflected by
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the surface of the substrates. In this case, the reflection and the transmission depends on the interference
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between the light back-scattered by the nanorods and the light reflected by the surface of the substrates.
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Figure 2 shows the transmission of the nanorod arrays with different periods. It can be seen that the

transmission increases with the period at first. When the period rises to 111 nm, the transmission reaches
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the maximum. After that, the transmission turns to decrease.

To explain the variation of the transmission with the period, we plot the oscillograms of the reflected

light and the chosen back-scattered light of the nanorod arrays with different periods, as shown in

Figure 3. The abscissa denotes the distance from the surface of the substrates. Because the
back-scattered light propagating along the axis of the nanorods is stronger than the back-scattered light

propagating along other directions, it’s oscillogram is chosen to be plotted in Figure 3. When the period

of the arrays is 111 nm, the intensity of the chosen back-scattered light is nearly the same as that of the

reflected light and the phase difference between them is approximately equal to π. Therefore, the

destructive interference between the back-scattered light and the reflected light makes the intensity of

their resultant waves nearly equal to zero and leads to a low reflection and a high transmission.

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If the period of the nanorod arrays is smaller than 111 nm, the intensity of the reflected light becomes

lower than that of the chosen back-scattered light and the phase difference between them becomes

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smaller. This gives the stronger resultant waves and consequently results in a higher reflection and a
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lower transmission.
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It can also be seen in Figure 3 that, if the period of the nanorod arrays is larger than 111 nm, the

intensity difference between the chosen back-scattered light and the reflected light increases with the
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increasing period of the arrays, and the phase difference between them also increases. Therefore, the
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destructive interference between the back-scattered light the reflected light makes their resultant waves
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stronger. As a result, the reflection becomes higher and the transmission becomes lower.

Figure 4 shows the patterns of the interference between the reflected light and the chosen
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back-scattered light (the incident light is not included) of the nanorod arrays with different periods. It

can be seen that, at the period of 111 nm, the resultant waves are the weakest. This agrees with the

results in Figure 3.
 Different from the weak scatter of the nanorods with the radius of 50 nm, if the radius of the nanorods

becomes 100 nm, the scatter coefficient is 2.91937. This means that the scatter is strong enough to make

it possible that the total scatter cross-sections of all nanorods of the arrays become larger than the whole

surface of the substrates. It can be calculated that, when the period of the nanorod arrays is less than 241

nm, the total scatter cross-sections can cover the whole surface of the substrates and little incident light

can reach directly the surface of the substrates.

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Figure 5 shows the variation of the transmission of Si nanorod arrays with the periods. The radius of

the nanorods is 100 nm. When the period of the arrays is small, the transmission rises with the

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increasing period. After forming a dip in the curve around the period of 280 nm, the transmission
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reaches the maximum at 325 nm. The relationship between the transmission and the array’s period might
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be explained by the interference between the back-scattered light and the light reflected by the

substrate’s surface.
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When the period is smaller than 241 nm, due to the strong scatter of the nanorods, nearly all of the
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incident light is scattered and the light reflected by the substrate’s surface is negligible. Because the
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neighbouring nanorods are close to each other, the phase difference between the back-scattered light of

the neighbouring nanorods is small and leads to the constructive interference between them. With the
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increasing period of the nanorod arrays, the phase difference between the back-scattered light of the

neighbouring nanorods also increases. Therefore, their resultant waves becomes weaker although the

interference is still constructive and the scattering intensity of each nanorod keeps unchanged. As a
result, the reflection of the nanorod arrays decreases and the transmission increases, as shown in Figure

5.

If the period of the nanorod arrays rises to be beyond 241 nm (the critical period at which the total

scatter cross-section is equal to the whole surface of the substrates), the scatter cross-section can not

cover the whole surface of the substrates and some of the incident light is not scattered. The unscattered

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light can directly reach the surface of the substrates and is reflected. Because only a small fraction of the

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incident light is not scattered, the reflection and the transmission of the nanorod arrays are still

determined by the back-scattered light, so the transmission continues to rise with the period of the

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arrays. e-
However, when the period of the nanorod arrays is close to 280 nm, the diffraction inside the
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substrates becomes strong and starts to have effects on the transmission because the light wavelength

inside Si substrates is about 280 nm (the incident wavelength is 1000 nm). The diffraction inside the
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substrates makes the transmission decrease. After the period rises to be larger than 280 nm, the
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diffraction disappears and the transmission keeps increasing with the period of the nanorod arrays and
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form a dip in the transmission curve.

When the array’s period continues to increase, the phase difference between the back-scattered light
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of the neighbouring nanorods also rises and leads to the weaker resultant waves and the increasing

transmission. However, on the other hand, with the increasing period, less incident light is scattered by

the nanorods and more incident light is reflected by the surface of the substrates. This will result in the

increasing reflection and decreasing transmission. The competition of the two mechanisms makes the
transmission reach the maximum around the period of 325 nm. After that, more reflected light leads to

the decrease of the transmission.

Figure 6 shows the pattern of the interference between the scattered light of the neighbouring

nanorods and the reflected light (the incident light is not included). It can be seen that, when the period

of the nanorod arrays is 325 nm, the electrical field above the nanorod arrays is the weakest. It indicates

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that the reflection is the lowest and the transmission is the highest at the period of 325 nm.

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It should be pointed out that the light forward-scattered obliquely by the nanorods may reach the

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surface of the substrates and be reflected. In the case that the nanorod’s radius is 50 nm, the scatter is

weak, so the obliquely forward-scattered light is negligible. However, in the case that the scatter is
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strong but the scatter cross-section can not cover the whole surface of the substrates, the obliquely
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forward-scattered light can not be negligible. Its reflected light interferes with other light. Because this

situation is complicated and difficult to be calculated, it is not discussed here and will be investigated in
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the next work.

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4. Conclusion
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It is demonstrated that the light-trapping mechanism of the nanorod arrays depends on the scattering
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intensity which is determined by the nanorod’s radius. When the radius is small, the reflection and the

transmission depends on the interference between the scattered light and the light reflected by the

substrate’s surfaces. If the radius of the nanorods becomes large, there are two cases. In the first case

that the total scattering cross-section of the nanorods is bigger than the whole surface of the substrate,

the reflection and the transmission is determined by the interference between the light scattered by
neighbouring nanorods. In the second case that the total scattering cross-section of the nanorods can not

cover the whole surface of the substrate, the reflection and the transmission depends on the interference

between the back-scattered light of the neighbouring nanorods and the light reflected by the surface of

the substrates.
Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have

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appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as
potential competing interests:

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Funding: This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu (Grant No.

BK2011033); and the Primary Research & Development Plan of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.
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BE2016175).
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Figure Caption

Figure 1. (a) Schematic of periodic Si nanorod arrays on Si substrates and (b) simulated model.

Figure 2. Transmission of the nanorod arrays with different periods (The radius of the nanorods

is 50 nm).

Figure 3. The oscillograms of the reflected light and the chosen back-scattered light of the

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nanorod arrays with different periods. The abscissa denotes the distance from the surface of the

substrates. The chosen back-scattered light propagates along the axis of the nanorod.

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Figure 4. The patterns of the interference between the reflected light and the chosen
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back-scattered light (the incident light is not included) of the nanorod arrays with different

period. (a) T=105 nm, (b)T=111 nm, (c)T=130 nm, (d)T=150 nm.
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Figure 5. Variation of the transmission of Si nanorod arrays with the period. The radius of the

nanorods is 100 nm.

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Figure 6. Pattern of the interference between the scattered light of neighbouring nanorods and

the reflected light at different periods of (a) 210 nm, (b) 260 nm, (c) 280 nm, (d) 325 nm and (e)
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400 nm.
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 f
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a b
Figure 1. (a) Schematic of periodic Si nanorod arrays on Si substrates and (b) simulated model.

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Figure 2. Transmission of the nanorod arrays with different periods (The radius of the nanorods

is 50 nm).
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Figure 3. The oscillograms of the reflected light and the chosen back-scattered light of the

nanorod arrays with different periods. The abscissa denotes the distance from the surface of the
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substrates. The chosen back-scattered light propagates along the axis of the nanorod.
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a b c d
Figure 4. The patterns of the interference between the reflected light and the chosen

back-scattered light (the incident light is not included) of the nanorod arrays with different

period. (a) T=105 nm, (b)T=111 nm, (c)T=130 nm, (d)T=150 nm.
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Figure 5. Variation of the transmission of Si nanorod arrays with the period. The radius of the

nanorods is 100 nm. e-

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a b c d e
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Figure 6. Pattern of the interference between the scattered light of neighbouring nanorods and

the reflected light at different periods of (a) 210 nm, (b) 260 nm, (c) 280 nm, (d) 325 nm and (e)

400 nm.