Reduced micro-deformation attenuation in large-mode area photonic crystal fibers for visible applications

We consider large-mode area photonic crystal fibers for visible applications where micro-deformation induced attenuation becomes a potential problem when the effective area A_eff is sufficiently large compared to lambda^2. We argue how a slight increase in fiber diameter D can be used in screening the high-frequency components of the micro-deformation spectrum mechanically and we confirm this experimentally for both 15 and 20 micron core fibers. For typical bending-radii (R~16 cm) the operating band-width increases by ~3-400 nm to the low-wavelength side.Comment: Accepted for Optics Letter

Liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals: Ohmic dissipation and broadening of modes

The pronounced light-matter interactions in photonic crystals make them interesting as opto-fludic "building blocks" for lab-on-a-chip applications. We show how conducting electrolytes cause dissipation and smearing of the density-of-states, thus altering decay dynamics of excited bio-molecules dissolved in the electrolyte. Likewise, we find spatial damping of propagating modes, of the order dB/cm, for naturally occurring electrolytes such as drinking water or physiological salt water.Comment: 9 pages including 2 figure

Neuronal Inhibition under the Spotlight

In this issue of Neuron, Lin et al. (2015) report an optical method to precisely manipulate the activity of GABAA receptors by designing a mutant receptor that binds photosensitive compounds. This allows for studying GABAA receptors in situ and represents a valuable tool to investigate how inhibition affects brain physiology

Screening model for nanowire surface-charge sensors in liquid

The conductance change of nanowire field-effect transistors is considered a highly sensitive probe for surface charge. However, Debye screening of relevant physiological liquid environments challenge device performance due to competing screening from the ionic liquid and nanowire charge carriers. We discuss this effect within Thomas-Fermi and Debye-Huckel theory and derive analytical results for cylindrical wires which can be used to estimate the sensitivity of nanowire surface-charge sensors. We study the interplay between the nanowire radius, the Thomas-Fermi and Debye screening lengths, and the length of the functionalization molecules. The analytical results are compared to finite-element calculations on a realistic geometry.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figures. Accepted for AP

Non-perturbative approach to high-index-contrast variations in electromagnetic systems

We present a method that formally calculates \emph{exact} frequency shifts of an electromagnetic field for arbitrary changes in the refractive index. The possible refractive index changes include both anisotropic changes and boundary shifts. Degenerate eigenmode frequencies pose no problems in the presented method. The approach relies on operator algebra to derive an equation for the frequency shifts, which eventually turn out in a simple and physically sound form. Numerically the equations are well-behaved, easy implementable, and can be solved very fast. Like in perturbation theory a reference system is first considered, which then subsequently is used to solve another related, but different system. For our method precision is only limited by the reference system basis functions and the error induced in frequency is of second order for first-order basis set error. As an example we apply our method to the problem of variations in the air-hole diameter in a photonic crystal fiber.Comment: Accepted for Opt. Commu