Transfer printing and nanomanipulating luminescent photonic crystal membrane nanocavities

The release of photoluminescent InGaAsP photonic crystal nanocavity chiplets from the host chip for creating autonomous functional microparticles is demonstrated. A transfer printing method using a soft polymeric material as a stamp is used to transfer cavity arrays to other substrates. Alternatively, cavities are transferred individually by a nanomanipulation technique. The chiplets can be fully deterministically positioned on both the host chip and another substrate (glass) with the nanomanipulator. The chiplets have the striking property of spontaneously orienting themselves with their plane perpendicular to the receiving surface. At each stage of the process, the condition of the cavities as dependent on their immediate surroundings is monitored from their photoluminescence spectrum. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4712410]