Search

Dielectric nanostructures exhibit low-loss electrical and magnetic resonance, making them ideal for quantum information processing. In this study, the periodic double-groove silicon nanodisk (DGSND) is used to support the anapole state. Based on the distribution properties of the electromagnetic field in anapole states, the anapoles are manipulated by cutting the dielectric metamaterial. Quantum dots (QDs) are used to stimulate the anapole and control the amplification of the photoluminescence signal within the QDs. By opening symmetrical holes in the long axis of the nanodisk in the dielectric metamaterial, the current distribution of Mie resonance can be adjusted. As a result, the toroidal dipole moment is altered, leading to an enhanced electric field (E-field) and Purcell factor. When the dielectric metamaterial is deposited on the Ag substrate separated by the silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) layer, the structure exhibits ultra-narrow perfect absorption with even higher E-field and Purcell factor enhancement compared to silicon (Si) nanodisks.

Edge enhancement, as an important part of image processing, has played an essential role in amplitude-contrast and phase-contrast object imaging. The edge enhancement of three-dimensional (3D) vortex imaging has been successfully implemented by Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH), but the background noise and image contrast effects are still not satisfactory. To solve these issues, the edge enhancement of FINCH by employing Bessel-like spiral phase modulation is proposed and demonstrated. Compared with the conventional spiral phase modulated FINCH, the proposed technique can achieve high-quality edge enhancement 3D vortex imaging with lower background noise, higher contrast and resolution. The significantly improved imaging quality is mainly attributed to the effective sidelobes' suppression in the generated optical vortices with the Bessel-like modulation technique. Experimental results of the small circular aperture, resolution target, and the Drosophila melanogaster verify its excellent imaging performance. Moreover, we also proposed a new method for selective edge enhancement of 3D vortex imaging by breaking the symmetry of the spiral phase in the algorithmic model of isotropic edge enhancement. The reconstructed images of the circular aperture show that the proposed method is able to enhance the edges of the given objects selectively in any desired direction.

In this work, we present an efficient polarization conversion device via using a hollow graphene metasurface. The platform can simultaneously realize a series of excellent performances, including the broadband x-to-y cross polarization conversion (CPC) function with near unity polarization conversion ratio (PCR), dual-frequency linear-to-circular polarization conversion (LTC-PC) function, and highly sensitive polarization conversion function manipulation under wide oblique incidence angle range. For instance, the proposed device obtains an x-to-y CPC function with the bandwidth up to 1.83 THz (χPCR ≥98.8%). Moreover, the x-to-y CPC function can be switched to LTC-PC function via artificially tuning the Fermi energy of graphene. The maximal frequency shift sensitivity (S) of polarization conversion function reaches 23.09 THz/eV, suggesting a frequency shift of 2.309 THz for the LTC-PC function when the chemical potential is changed by 0.1 eV. Based on these superior performances, the polarization converter can hold potential applications in integrated and compact devices, such as polarization sensor, switches and other optical polarization control components.

Understanding energy transfer via near-field thermal radiation is essential for applications such as near-field imaging, thermophotovoltaics and thermal circuit devices. Evanescent waves and photon tunneling are responsible for the near-field energy transfer. In bulk noble metals, however, surface plasmons do not contribute efficiently to the near-field energy transfer because of the mismatch of wavelength. In this paper, a giant near-field radiative heat transfer rate that is orders-of-magnitude greater than the blackbody limit between two ultrathin metallic films is demonstrated at nanoscale separations. Moreover, different physical origins for near-field thermal radiation transfer for thick and thin metallic films are clarified, and the radiative heat transfer enhancement in ultrathin metallic films is proved to come from the excitation of surface plasmons. Meanwhile, because of the inevitable high sheet resistance of ultrathin metal films, the heat transfer coefficient is 4600 times greater than the Planckian limit for the separation of 10 nm in ultrathin metallic films, which is the same order or even greater than that in other 2D materials with low carrier density. Our work shows that ultrathin metallic films are excellent materials for radiative heat transfer, which may find promising applications in thermal nano-devices and thermal engineering.

We theoretically study a tunable reflective focusing lens, based on graphene metasurface, which consists of rectangle aperture array. Dynamic control of either the focal intensity or focal length for terahertz circular polarized waves can be achieved by uniformly tuning the graphene Fermi energy. We demonstrate the graphene apertures with the same geometry; however, spatially varying orientations can only control the focal intensity. To change the focal length, the spatially varying aperture lengths are also required. A comparative study between the metalenses, which generate only geometric or both gradient and geometric phase changes, has shown that the apertures' spatially varying length distribution is the key factor for determining the modulation level, rather than the focal length's modulation range. This kind of metalens provides tunable, high-efficiency, broadband, and wide-angle off-axis focusing, thereby offering great application potential in lightweight and integrated terahertz devices.

We present diffractive optical elements with an extended depth of focus, namely, fractal spiral zone plates (FSZPs), which combine a fractal structure and spiral zone plates (SZPs) to generate a sequence of coaxial vortices in the focal volume along the propagation direction. The axial irradiance of the FSZPs is examined both experimentally and in a simulation and is compared with that of SZPs and that of fractal zone plates. The focusing properties of the FSZPs with different parameters are investigated, and a potential application to edge-enhancement images is also shown.

The development of new substrates for surface-enhanced spectroscopy is primarily motivated by the ability to design such substrates to provide the maximum signal enhancement. In this paper, we theoretically design and investigate a crisscross dimer array as a plasmonic substrate for enhancing coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). The plasmonic film-crisscross dimer array system can excite multiple resonances at optical frequencies. By properly designing structure parameters, three plasmon resonances with large field enhancements and same spatial hot spot regions can spectrally match with the pump, Stokes and anti-Stokes beams, respectively. The CARS signals are strongly enhanced by multi-resonance plasmon field enhancements. The estimated CARS factor can reach as high order as ~10 16 over conventional CARS without the plasmonic substrate.

Plasmonic metallic nanostructures have been demonstrated an effective way to enhance the light emission efficiency in LEDs. Here, we propose a design of white LEDs that combining dielectric silicon nanopillar array in the color-converting layer. By investigating theoretically the guided mode caused by the nanopillar array-waveguide system, we demonstrate that the silicon nanopillar arrays enable larger near-field enhancement and more efficient photons emission property than the plasmonic counterparts. These performances make the silicon nanopillar arrays have potential application in light converter for efficient white LEDs. We also show that the guided mode can be controlled by changing the period of nanopillar grating and the thickness of polymer layer. More significant performance can be achieved by further optimizing the shape and size of the silicon nanoparticles. Compared with the square nanoparticle arrays, the hexagonal nanopillar arrays are demonstrated to have larger field enhancement and emission enhancement. Our research is expected to give insights into the design and optimization of the solid-state lighting systems by using silicon nanostructures, and the all-dielectric metamaterials for gaining or lasing devices.

A novel plasmonic metamaterial consisting of the solid (bar) and the inverse (slot) compound metallic nanostructure for electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) is proposed in this paper, which is demonstrated to achieve an ultra-narrow absorption peak with the linewidth less than 8 nm and the absorptivity exceeding 97% at optical frequencies. This is attributed to the plasmonic EIA resonance arising from the efficient coupling between the magnetic response of the slot (dark mode) and the electric resonance of the bar (bright mode). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the plasmonic EIA is used to realize the narrow-band perfect absorbers. The underlying physics are revealed by applying the two-coupled-oscillator model. The near-perfect-absorption resonance also causes an enhancement of about 50 times in H-field and about 130 times in E-field within the slots. Such absorber possesses potential for applications in filter, thermal emitter, surface enhanced Raman scattering, sensing and nonlinear optics.

A novel planar plasmonic metamaterial for electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light characteristic is presented in this paper, which consists of nanoring and nanorod compound structures. Two bright modes in the metamaterial are induced by the electric dipole resonance inside nanoring and nanorod, respectively. The coupling between two bright modes introduces transparency window and large group index. By adjusting the geometric parameters of metamaterial structure, the transmittance of EIT window at 385 THz is about 60%, and the corresponding group index and Q factor can reach up to 1.2 × 10³ and 97, respectively, which has an important application in slow-light device, active plasmonic switch, SERS and optical sensing.

Double Fano resonant characteristics are investigated in planar plasmonic structure by embedding a metallic nanorod in symmetric U-shaped split ring resonators, which are caused by a strong interplay between a broad bright mode and narrow dark modes. The bright mode is resulted from the nanorod electric dipole resonance while the dark modes originate from the magnetic dipole induced by LC resonances. The overlapped dual Fano resonances can be decomposed to two separate ones by adjusting the coupling length between the nanorod and U-shaped split ring resonators. Fano resonances in the designed structure exhibit high refractive-index sensing sensitivity and figure of merit, which have potential applications in single or double-wavelength sensing in the near-infrared region.

A broad-band perfect absorber composing a two-dimensional periodic metal-dielectric-metal sandwiches array on dielectric/metal substrate is designed and numerically investigated. It is shown that the nearly-perfect absorption with a bandwidth of about 50 nm in visible region can be achieved by overlapping of two plasmon resonances: one originating from the coupling of electric dipoles between adjacent unit cells and another arising from magnetic dipole plasmon resonances. A capacitor-inductor circuit description is introduced to explain the dependence of resonance frequencies and band-width on geometrical parameters.

A simple method to trap and manipulate metallic micro/nano-particles on the surface of photorefractive crystals is proposed. After inducing inhomogeneous charge density and space-charge fields in photorefractive crystals by non-uniform illumination, both uncharged and charged metallic particles can be trapped on the illuminated surface due to dielectrophoretic force and electrophoretic force, respectively. A transition from dielectrophoresis to electrophoresis is observed when manipulating nano-silver particles with high surface space-charge field. Our results show that this method is simple and effective to form surface microstructures of metallic particles.