Dispersion and transitions of dipolar plasmon modes in graded plasmonic waveguides

Coupled plasmon modes are studied in graded plasmonic waveguides, which are periodic chains of metallic nanoparticles embedded in a host with gradually varying refractive indices. We identify three types of localized modes called "light", "heavy", and "light-heavy" plasmonic gradons outside the passband, according to various degrees of localization. We also demonstrate new transitions among extended and localized modes when the interparticle separation $d$ is smaller than a critical $d_c$, whereas the three types of localized modes occur for $d>d_c$, with no extended modes. The transitions can be explained with phase diagrams constructed for the lossless metallic systems.Comment: Preliminary results have been presented at ETOPIM 7. Submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Giant enhanced optical nonlinearity of colloidal nanocrystals with a graded-index host

The effective linear and third-order nonlinear optical properties of metallic colloidal crystal immersed in a graded-index host fluid are investigated theoretically. The local electric fields are extracted self-consistently based on the layer-to-layer interactions, which are readily given by the Lekner summation method. The resultant optical absorption and nonlinearity enhancement show a series of sharp peaks, which merge in a broadened resonant band. The sharp peaks become a continuous band for increasing packing density and number of layers. We believe that the sharp peaks arise from the in-plane dipolar interactions and the surface plasmon resonance, whereas the continuous band is due to the presence of the gradient in the host refractive index. These results have not been observed in homogeneous and randomly-dispersed colloids, and thus would be of great interest in optical nanomaterial engineering.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Tunable Localization and Oscillation of Coupled Plasmon Waves in Graded Plasmonic Chains

The localization (confinement) of coupled plasmon modes, named as gradons, has been studied in metal nanoparticle chains immersed in a graded dielectric host. We exploited the time evolution of various initial wavepackets formed by the linear combination of the coupled modes. We found an important interplay between the localization of plasmonic gradons and the oscillation in such graded plasmonic chains. Unlike in optical superlattices, gradient cannot always lead to Bloch oscillations, which can only occur for wavepackets consisting of particular types of gradons. Moreover, the wavepackets will undergo different forms of oscillations. The correspondence can be applied to design a variety of optical devices by steering among various oscillations.Comment: Sumitted to Journal of Applied Physic

Charmless B→PV,VVB \to PV, VV decays and new physics effects in the mSUGRA model

By employing the QCD factorization approach, we calculate the new physics contributions to the branching radios of the two-body charmless $B \to PV$ and $B \to VV$ decays in the framework of the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model. we choose three typical sets of the mSUGRA input parameters in which the Wilson coefficient $C_{7\gamma}(m_b)$ can be either SM-like (the case A and C) or has a flipped-sign (the case B). We found numerically that (a) the SUSY contributions are always very small for both case A and C; (b) for those tree-dominated decays, the SUSY contributions in case B are also very small; (c) for those QCD penguin-dominated decay modes, the SUSY contributions in case B can be significant, and can provide an enhancement about $30$ to the branching ratios of $B \to K^*(\pi,\phi,\rho)$ and $K \phi$ decays, but a reduction about $30$ to $B\to K(\rho, \omega)$ decays; and (d) the large SUSY contributions in the case B may be masked by the large theoretical errors dominated by the uncertainty from our ignorance of calculating the annihilation contributions in the QCD factorization approach.Comment: 34 pages, 8 PS figures, this is the correct version

Mechanical Properties and Biological Responses of Bioactive Glass Ceramics Processed using Indirect SLS

This paper will report on research which aims to generate bone replacement components by processing bioactive glass-ceramic powders using indirect selective laser sintering. The indirect SLS route has been chosen as it offers the ability to tailor the shape of the implant to the implantation site, and two bioactive glass ceramic materials have been processed through this route: apatite-mullite and apatite-wollostanite. The results of bend tests, to investigate mechanical properties, and in vitro and in vivo experiments to investigate biological responses of the materials will be reported, and the suitability of completed components for implant will be assessed.Mechanical Engineerin