Lab-on-a-Tip (LOT): Where Nanotechnology can Revolutionize Fibre Optics

Recently developed lab-on-a-chip technologies integrate multiple traditional assays on a single chip with higher sensitivity, faster assay time, and more streamlined sample operation. We discuss the prospects of the lab-on-a-tip platform, where assays can be integrated on a miniaturized tip for in situ and in vivo analysis. It will resolve some of the limitations of available lab-on-a-chip platforms and enable next generation multifunctional in vivo sensors, as well as analytical techniques at the single cell or even sub-cellular levels

Broadband Waveguide QED System on a Chip

We demonstrate that a slot waveguide provides a broadband loss-free platform suitable for applications in quantum optics. We find that strong coupling between light quanta and a single quantum emitter placed in the waveguide slot can be achieved with efficiency higher than 96% and Purcell factor (spontaneous emission factor) larger than 200. The proposed system is a promising platform for quantum information processing and can be used to realize an efficient single photon source and optically addressable photon register.Engineering and Applied Science

Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavities for Biomedical Sensing

Manipulation of light at the nanoscale has the promise to enable numerous technological advances in biomedical sensing, optical communications, nano-mechanics and quantum optics. As photons have vanishingly small interaction cross sections, their interactions have to be mitigated by matters (i.e. quantum emitters, molecules, electrons etc.). Waveguides and cavities are the fundamental building blocks of the optical circuits, which control or confine light to specific matters of interest. The first half of the thesis (Chapters 2 & 3) focuses on how to design various photonic nanostructures to manipulate light on nano- to micro- scale, especially to modify the light-matter interaction properties. Chapter 2 discusses how nano-slot waveguides and photonic crystal nanobeam waveguides are able to modify the emission of quantum emitters, in a different way that normal ridge waveguides are not able to. Chapter 3 focuses on a more complicated and powerful structure: the photonic crystal nanobeam cavity. The design, fabrication and characterization of the photonic crystal nanobeam cavities are described and demonstrated in detail, which lays out the foundation of the biomedical sensing applications in the second half of the thesis. The second half of the thesis (Chapters 4 & 5) focuses on the application of photonic crystal nanobeam cavities in the label-free sensing of biomedical substances. Chapter 4 demonstrates detection of solutions with different refractive index (aceton, methanol, IPA etc.), glucose concentration, single polystyrene nanoparticles and single streptavidin bio-molecules. Chapter 4 proposes a novel nonlinear optical method to further enhance the sensitivity. Chapter 4 also demonstrates high quality nanobeam cavities fabricated in polymers, that open up a new route to decrease the cost, as well as to achieve novel applications with functional polymers. The broader impact of this technology lies in its potential of commercialization of a new generation of biosensors with high sensitivity and high integration. Chapter 5 discusses progresses towards instrumentation of the nanobeam cavity sensing technology for research & development apparatus, as well as point-of-care diagnostic tools.Engineering and Applied Science

Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavity Strongly Coupled to the Feeding Waveguide

A deterministic design of an ultrahigh Q, wavelength scale mode volume photonic crystal nanobeam cavity is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Using this approach, cavities with Q>10^6 and on-resonance transmission T>90% are designed. The devices fabricated in Si and capped with low-index polymer, have Q=80,000 and T=73%. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest transmission measured in deterministically designed, wavelength scale high Q cavities

Nanoscale Label-free Bioprobes to Detect Intracellular Proteins in Single Living Cells

Fluorescent labeling techniques have been widely used in live cell studies; however, the labeling processes can be laborious and challenging for use in non-transfectable cells, and labels can interfere with protein functions. While label-free biosensors have been realized by nanofabrication, a method to track intracellular protein dynamics in real-time, in situ and in living cells has not been found. Here we present the first demonstration of label-free detection of intracellular p53 protein dynamics through a nanoscale surface plasmon-polariton fiber-tip-probe (FTP)

Continuously tunable microdroplet-laser in a microfluidic channel

This paper describes the generation and optical characterization of a series of dye-doped droplet-based optical microcavities with continuously decreasing radius in a microfluidic channel. A flow-focusing nozzle generated the droplets (~21 μm in radius) using benzyl alcohol as the disperse phase and water as the continuous phase. As these drops moved down the channel, they dissolved, and their size decreased. The emission characteristics from the drops could be matched to the whispering gallery modes from spherical micro-cavities. The wavelength of emission from the drops changed from 700 to 620 nm as the radius of the drops decreased from 21 μm to 7 μm. This range of tunability in wavelengths was larger than that reported in previous work on droplet-based cavities.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Deterministic design of wavelength scale, ultra-high Q photonic crystal nanobeam cavities

Photonic crystal nanobeam cavities are versatile platforms of interest for optical communications, optomechanics, optofluidics, cavity QED, etc. In a previous work \cite{quan10}, we proposed a deterministic method to achieve ultrahigh \emph{Q} cavities. This follow-up work provides systematic analysis and verifications of the deterministic design recipe and further extends the discussion to air-mode cavities. We demonstrate designs of dielectric-mode and air-mode cavities with $Q>10^9$, as well as cavities with both high-\emph{Q} ($>10^7$) and high on-resonance transmissions ($T>95$)

Influence of pulse frequency on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-Ti-V-Cu-N coatings deposited by HIPIMS

As an important parameter of HIPIMS, pulse frequency has significant influence on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the deposited coatings, especially for the multi-component coatings deposited by using a spliced target with different metal sputtering yields. In this study, a single Al67Ti33-V-Cu spliced target was designed to prepare Al-Ti-V-Cu-N coatings by using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS). The results showed that the peak target current density decreased from 0.75 to 0.24 A∙cm−2 as the pulse frequency increased, along with the microstructure transferred from dense structure to coarse column structure. The pulse frequency has significant influence on chemical compositions of Al-Ti-V-Cu-N coatings, especially for Cu content increasing from 6.2 to 11.7 at.%. All the coatings exhibited a single solid-solution phase of Ti-Al-V-N, and the preferred orientation changed from (111) to (220) when the pulse frequency increased above 200 Hz. The decrease in peak target current density at high pulse frequencies resulted in a sharp decrease in the coating hardness from 35.2 to 16.4 GPa, whereas the relaxation of compressive residual stress contributed to an improvement in adhesion strength from 43.3 to 79.6 N

Ultra-low threshold gallium nitride photonic crystal nanobeam laser

We report exceptionally low thresholds (9.1 μJ/cm2) for room temperature lasing at ∼450 nm in optically pumped Gallium Nitride (GaN) nanobeam cavity structures. The nanobeam cavity geometry provides high theoretical Q (>100 000) with small modal volume, leading to a high spontaneous emission factor, β = 0.94. The active layer materials are Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) fragmented quantum wells (fQWs), a critical factor in achieving the low thresholds, which are an order-of-magnitude lower than obtainable with continuous QW active layers. We suggest that the extra confinement of photo-generated carriers for fQWs (compared to QWs) is responsible for the excellent performance.This work was enabled by facilities available at the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which was supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF Award No. ECS- 0335765. This work was also supported in part by the NSF Materials World Network (Award No. 1008480), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Award No. EP/H047816/1), and the Royal Academy of Engineering.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/23/10.1063/1.4922211