Precise optical engineering of carbon-based photoluminescence arrays based on e-beam irradiation process

Photoluminescent carbon nanomaterials have been widely studied for their low biological toxicity, outstanding biocompatibility, unique physical–chemical properties and obvious PL properties. The reliable fabrication of high-resolution fluorescence arrays has important significance in further studies and applications. The organic resist can be in-situ transferred into specific carbon-based micro-nano structure with fluorescence properties under e-beam irradiation. In this work, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) thin film was adopted for preparing solid-carbon nanostructures with 23.89 nm feature size. In a dark field environment, the structure has presented broad luminescent spectrum with maximum at 600 nm. Considering the significant influence of the surface molecular state on solid-carbon arrays, ammonia solution was used to enhance the PL intensity of the sample. The results verified that PL intensity was enhanced by a factor of 17 before and after ammonia solution treatment. Then carbon-based nanostructures were also fabricated on the surface of MoS2 film for studying PL properties between 2D materials and carbon-based dot arrays. The results show that superposition state was produced based on PL intensity and peak location of the solid-carbon dot array and MoS2 film. The optical behavior study of high-resolution solid-carbon arrays will provide a powerful supplement for carbon-based photophysical study and high-performance sensing devices.