371 research outputs found
Plasmon enhanced optical tweezers with gold-coated black silicon
Plasmonic optical tweezers are a ubiquitous tool for the precise manipulation of nanoparticles and biomolecules at low photon flux, while femtosecond-laser optical tweezers can probe the nonlinear optical properties of the trapped species with applications in biological diagnostics. In order to adopt plasmonic optical tweezers in real-world applications, it is essential to develop large-scale fabrication processes without compromising the trapping efficiency. Here, we develop a novel platform for continuous wave (CW) and femtosecond plasmonic optical tweezers, based on gold-coated black silicon. In contrast with traditional lithographic methods, the fabrication method relies on simple, single-step, maskless tabletop laser processing of silicon in water that facilitates scalability. Gold-coated black silicon supports repeatable trapping efficiencies comparable to the highest ones reported to date. From a more fundamental aspect, a plasmon-mediated efficiency enhancement is a resonant effect, and therefore, dependent on the wavelength of the trapping beam. Surprisingly, a wavelength characterization of plasmon-enhanced trapping efficiencies has evaded the literature. Here, we exploit the repeatability of the recorded trapping efficiency, offered by the gold-coated black silicon platform, and perform a wavelength-dependent characterization of the trapping process, revealing the resonant character of the trapping efficiency maxima. Gold-coated black silicon is a promising platform for large-scale parallel trapping applications that will broaden the range of optical manipulation in nanoengineering, biology, and the study of collective biophotonic effects
Vortices in exciton-polariton condensates with polarization splitting
The presence of polarization splitting of exciton-polariton branches in
planar semiconductor microcavities has a pronounced effect on vortices in
polariton condensates. We show that the TE-TM splitting leads to the coupling
between the left and right half-vortices (vortices in the right and left
circular components of the condensate), that otherwise do not interact. We
analyze also the effect of linear polarization pinning resulted from a fixed
splitting between two perpendicular linear polarizations. In this case,
half-vortices acquire strings (solitons) attached to them. The half-vortices
with strings can be detected by observing the interference fringes of light
emitted from the cavity in two circular polarizations. The string affects the
fringes in both polarizations. Namely, the half-vortex is characterized by an
asymmetric fork-like dislocation in one circular polarization; the fringes in
the other circular polarization are continuous, but they are shifted by
crossing the string.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figs, Optics of Excitons in Confined Systems 11 (Madrid,
7-11 september 2009
Coherent Oscillations in an Exciton-Polariton Josephson Junction
We report on the observation of spontaneous coherent oscillations in a
microcavity polariton bosonic Josephson junction. The condensation of exciton
polaritons takes place under incoherent excitation in a disordered environment,
where double potential wells tend to appear in the disordered landscape.
Coherent oscillations set on at an excitation power well above the condensation
threshold. The time resolved population and phase dynamics reveal the analogy
with the AC Josephson effect. We have introduced a theoretical two-mode model
to describe the observed effects, which allows us to explain how the different
realizations of the pulsed experiment have a similar phase relation
Inverse design and implementation of a wavelength demultiplexing grating coupler
Nanophotonics has emerged as a powerful tool for manipulating light on chips.
Almost all of today's devices, however, have been designed using slow and
ineffective brute-force search methods, leading in many cases to limited device
performance. In this article, we provide a complete demonstration of our
recently proposed inverse design technique, wherein the user specifies design
constraints in the form of target fields rather than a dielectric constant
profile, and in particular we use this method to demonstrate a new
demultiplexing grating. The novel grating, which has not been developed using
conventional techniques, accepts a vertical-incident Gaussian beam from a
free-space and separates O-band and C-band
light into separate waveguides. This inverse design concept
is simple and extendable to a broad class of highly compact devices including
frequency splitters, mode converters, and spatial mode multiplexers.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. A supplementary section describing the
inverse-design algorithm in detail has been added, in addition to minor
corrections and updated reference
Exploring Bluetooth based Mobile Phone Interaction with the Hermes Photo Display
One of the most promising possibilities for supporting user interaction with public displays is the use of personal mobile phones. Furthermore, by utilising Bluetooth users should have the capability to interact with displays without incurring personal financial connectivity costs. However, despite the relative maturity of Bluetooth as a standard and its widespread adoption in todayâs mobile phones, little exploration seems to have taken place in this area - despite its apparent significant potential. This paper describe the findings of an exploratory study nvolving our Hermes Photo Display which has been extended to enable users with a suitable phone to both send and receive pictures over Bluetooth. We present both the technical challenges of working with Bluetooth and, through our user study, we present initial insights into general user acceptability issues and the potential for such a display to facilitate notions of community
Penrose-Onsager Criterion Validation in a One-Dimensional Polariton Condensate
We perform quantum tomography on one-dimensional polariton condensates,
spontaneously occurring in linear disorder valleys in a CdTe planar microcavity
sample. By the use of optical interferometric techniques, we determine the
first-order coherence function and the amplitude and phase of the order
parameter of the condensate, providing a full reconstruction of the single
particle density matrix for the polariton system. The experimental data are
used as input to theoretically test the consistency of Penrose-Onsager
criterion for Bose-Einstein condensation in the framework of nonequilibrium
polariton condensates. The results confirm the pertinence and validity of the
criterion for a non equilibrium condensed gas.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Single-mode tuneable laser operation of hybrid microcavities based on CdSe/CdS core/shell colloidal nanorods on silica microspheres
Colloidal core/shell semiconductor nanonorystals have generated a great deal of interest as gain media in recent years due to a number of salient properties originating from their small size and the associated quantum confinement [1]. These include low-threshold and temperature-insensitive lasing, reduced trapping of excited carriers, and the possibility to alleviate non-radiative Auger recombination by engineering the wavefunction distributions of the electrons, and holes within their volume. Here, single-mode, tuneable operation of fiber-coupled hybrid lasers based on colloidal CdSe/CdS core/shell nanorods on silica microspheres is reported
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