315 research outputs found
Beam-Size Invariant Spectropolarimeters Using Gap-Plasmon Metasurfaces
Metasurfaces enable exceptional control over the light with surface-confined
planar components, offering the fascinating possibility of very dense
integration and miniaturization in photonics. Here, we design, fabricate and
experimentally demonstrate chip-size plasmonic spectropolarimeters for
simultaneous polarization state and wavelength determination.
Spectropolarimeters, consisting of three gap-plasmon phase-gradient
metasurfaces that occupy 120{\deg} circular sectors each, diffract normally
incident light to six predesigned directions, whose azimuthal angles are
proportional to the light wavelength, while contrasts in the corresponding
diffraction intensities provide a direct measure of the incident polarization
state through retrieval of the associated Stokes parameters. The
proof-of-concept 96-{\mu}m-diameter spectropolarimeter operating in the
wavelength range of 750-950nm exhibits the expected polarization selectivity
and high angular dispersion. Moreover, we show that, due to the circular-sector
design, polarization analysis can be conducted for optical beams of different
diameters without prior calibration, demonstrating thereby the beam-size
invariant functionality. The proposed spectropolarimeters are compact,
cost-effective, robust, and promise high-performance real-time polarization and
spectral measurements
Semiconductor Metasurfaces for Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering
Semiconductor-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, as
a new frontier in the field of SERS, are hindered by their poor electromagnetic
field confinement, and weak light-matter interaction. Metasurfaces, a class of
2D artificial materials based on the electromagnetic design of nanophotonic
resonators, enable strong electromagnetic field enhancement and optical
absorption engineering for a wide range of semiconductor materials. However,
the engineering of semiconductor substrates into metasurfaces for improving
SERS activity remains underexplored. Here, we develop an improved SERS
metasurface platform that leverages the combination of titanium oxide (TiO2)
and the emerging physical concept of optical bound states in the continuum
(BICs) to boost the Raman emission. Moreover, fine-tuning of BIC-assisted
resonant absorption offers a pathway for maximizing the photoinduced charge
transfer effect (PICT) in SERS. We achieve ultrahigh values of BIC-assisted
electric field enhancement (|E/E0|^2 ~ 10^3), challenging the preconception of
weak electromagnetic (EM) field enhancement on semiconductor SERS substrates.
Our BIC-assisted TiO2 metasurface platform offers a new dimension in
spectrally-tunable SERS with earth-abundant and bio-compatible semiconductor
materials, beyond the traditional plasmonic ones
Trends in Nanophotonics-Enabled Optofluidic Biosensors
Optofluidic sensors integrate photonics with micro/nanofluidics to realize compact devices for the label-free detection of molecules and the real-time monitoring of dynamic surface binding events with high specificity, ultrahigh sensitivity, low detection limit, and multiplexing capability. Nanophotonic structures composed of metallic and/or dielectric building blocks excel at focusing light into ultrasmall volumes, creating enhanced electromagnetic near-fields ideal for amplifying the molecular signal readout. Furthermore, fluidic control on small length scales enables precise tailoring of the spatial overlap between the electromagnetic hotspots and the analytes, boosting light-matter interaction, and can be utilized to integrate advanced functionalities for the pre-treatment of samples in real-world-use cases, such as purification, separation, or dilution. In this review, the authors highlight current trends in nanophotonics-enabled optofluidic biosensors for applications in the life sciences while providing a detailed perspective on how these approaches can synergistically amplify the optical signal readout and achieve real-time dynamic monitoring, which is crucial in biomedical assays and clinical diagnostics
Metasurfaces for Advanced Sensing and Diagnostics
Interest in sensors and their applications is rapidly evolving, mainly driven by the huge demand of technologies whose ultimate purpose is to improve and enhance health and safety. Different electromagnetic technologies have been recently used and achieved good performances. Despite the plethora of literature, limitations are still present: limited response control, narrow bandwidth, and large dimensions. MetaSurfaces, artificial 2D materials with peculiar electromagnetic properties, can help to overcome such issues. In this paper, a generic tool to model, design, and manufacture MetaSurface sensors is developed. First, their properties are evaluated in terms of impedance and constitutive parameters. Then, they are linked to the structure physical dimensions. Finally, the proposed method is applied to realize devices for advanced sensing and medical diagnostic applications: glucose measurements, cancer stage detection, water content recognition, and blood oxygen level analysis. The proposed method paves a new way to realize sensors and control their properties at will. Most importantly, it has great potential to be used for many other practical applications, beyond sensing and diagnostic
CMOS compatible metamaterial absorbers for hyperspectral medium wave infrared imaging and sensing applications
We experimentally demonstrate a CMOS compatible medium wave infrared metal-insulator-metal (MIM) metamaterial absorber structure where for a single dielectric spacer thickness at least 93% absorption is attained for 10 separate bands centred at 3.08, 3.30, 3.53, 3.78, 4.14, 4.40, 4.72, 4.94, 5.33, 5.60 μm. Previous hyperspectral MIM metamaterial absorber designs required that the thickness of the dielectric spacer layer be adjusted in order to attain selective unity absorption across the band of interest thereby increasing complexity and cost. We show that the absorption characteristics of the hyperspectral metamaterial structures are polarization insensitive and invariant for oblique incident angles up to 25° making them suitable for practical implementation in an imaging system. Finally, we also reveal that under TM illumination and at certain oblique incident angles there is an extremely narrowband Fano resonance (Q < 50) between the MIM absorber mode and the surface plasmon polariton mode that could have applications in hazardous/toxic gas identification and biosensing
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