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The Constitution and the geometry aspects of any sensor is influenced by several factors involved in the assembling of sensor. It is basically influenced by parameter to be measured, method of measuring the measurand, nature of the parameter i.e. weather the parameter is chemical, biological, physical, optical, electrical, magnetic, mechanical or acoustic etc., environment around it, etc. In most of the cases, several sensors are developed, meant to measure a single parameter with maximum achievable sensitivity. In the present paper a fiber optic multipurpose sensor is described, which can be used to measure various physical quantities of liquids with well defined combination at room temperature (30 °C), employing a specific set of materials and methods in the design operation of the sensor. Exploiting all the advantages offered by the fiber optic technology, the sensor was calibrated to measure ultrasonic velocity, refractive index, density, dielectric constant, viscosity, molar volume, acoustic impedance, molar refraction, viscous relaxation time, adiabatic compressibility, free intermolecular length, Gibb’s free energy, absorption coefficient, internal pressure, free volume, mole fraction, concentration, effective mass at room temperature and examined to exhibit superiority in all respects compared to the conventional sensors.

Owing to the unique electromagnetic response ability, artificial electromagnetic metasurfaces have potential applications in medical, imaging, sensing, and other fields. In this paper, a novel composite THz metasurface integrated by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) resonant metasurface and silicon microfluidic channel has been proposed, which combines the advantages of semiconductor and carbon nanotubes film materials. The absorption characteristics and the refractive index sensing capabilities are investigated comprehensively. Calculation results show that two obvious resonant absorption peaks located at 1.20 THz and 1.85 THz and the absorption is nearly 99.6% and 89.8%, respectively; the device performs a good linear relationship between the position of resonant absorption peaks and the refractive index, and the frequency sensitivity can achieve 492 GHz/RIU. The influence of structural parameters and the offset of the center of the CNTs metasurface on the absorption spectrum demonstrate that the novel composite metasurface has a good reliability and stability and can be used for sensing various materials in other frequency regions range from radio frequency through THz and to the infrared regime. This novel composite metasurface has good biocompatibility and low cost, which widens the application range of terahertz functional devices.

Bolometer sensors are prominent and excellent choice in technology because they do not need cooling. The trade-off between high sensitivity, fast response time, and strong light absorption is a key important challenge in bolometer sensors. Here, the bolometric effect for a high resistance sensitivity plasmonic sensing of total and profile infusion of radiation is studied for the proposed bolometer sensor based on plasmonic multilayer structure at 26° C. In the present study, by generating strong coupling condition between incident wave and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), a very narrow absorption spectra with high figure of merit (FoM) is achieved. The analytical model and numerical simulation are fulfilled based on the transfer matrix method (TMM) and 3-D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), respectively. The narrow absorption spectra that generate by strong coupling with SPPs heats the silver thin film that leads to variation in temperature and supports TE surface mode. This temperature change rectifies the resistance of the metal thin film by the bolometric effect. So, optical characteristics of the proposed metasurface bolometer sensor, including quality factor (Q), sensitivity, and figure of merit (FoM) are calculated that Max sensitivity, FoM, and Q are 17.2 RIU-1, 530 and 434.5, respectively. Finally, we analytically simulate the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) in terms of wavelength and refractive index of analyte (na) that this resistance change can be monitored by an external electric model. The proposed plasmonic multilayer configuration is a very compact footprint structure that achieved high resistance sensitivity and FoM in comparison with any previous reports. This proposed thermal, optical, and electric plasmonic metasurface bolometer sensor can be used in different applications such as biophysics, biology, and environmental science.

We present the structural design and polarization-maintaining performance of solid-core anti-resonant fiber with two nested circular tubes in 3 m wavelength for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Numerical simulation results indicated that laser fundamental mode could be obtained by filling the specially designed fiber model with materials of different refractive indices to form the completely solid configuration. We calculated the bend loss of fiber to demonstrate the preferable birefringence performance and outstanding light-confining ability. With the structural deformations from resonant tubes, the birefringence coefficient was enhanced significantly from 210-5 to 6.9310-5, which was of great importance in the polarization sensitive systems. In particular, when nested circular tubes were moved to introduce deformations, the confined loss difference in two orthogonal polarizations was calculated more than two orders of magnitude, which was the desirable result to promote the fabrication of the linear polarizer in 3 m wavelength.

Polycarbonate (PC) is a durable and transparent optical plastic material commonly used as shatter-resistant alternative to traditional optical glass. Broadband antireflective (AR) coatings with excellent mechanical strength and environmental stability are essential for PC to achieve high light transmission and visual quality. In this work, chloroform vapor treatment was employed to partially embed the silica coating into the PC substrate for adhesion enhancement, which also divided the silica coating layer into bottom and middle layers with different refractive indices. The contact between the silica nanoparticles and the substrate was transformed from “point-contact” to “area-contact”, which enhanced the adhesion between coating and PC substrate. After the deposition of a top layer coating consisted of silica nanoparticles with smaller diameter, a triple-layer refractive index graded AR structure was constructed. Hexamethyldisilazane vapor surface modification was performed to decrease the surface free energy of top coating layer. The triple-layer coating coated PC exhibits superior antireflection property with an average reflectance of only 0.43% over a wide wavelength range of 400–1000 nm. After 100 times of friction or 5 months of exposure to a contaminated environment, the reflectance of coated PC shows barely noticeable difference, indicating its excellent mechanical strength and environmental stability.

In this paper, a new method for pesticide detection based on porous silicon microcavities was proposed. First, the aptamer of acetamiprid was fixed in the functionalized porous silicon microcavity. Then, the complementary strand of the aptamer modified with graphene quantum dots was hybridized with the aptamer, and the effective refractive index of the porous silicon microcavity increased. When acetamiprid was added, it bound to the aptamer due to its stronger specificity. The aptamer separated from the complementary strand of the coupled graphene quantum dots and bound to acetamiprid, resulting in a decrease in the effective refractive index, and its central wavelength of reflection spectrum was blue shifted, and the blueshift increased with the increase of acetamiprid concentration. The relationship between the change in central wavelength and the concentration of acetamiprid was analysed, and the detection limit of acetamiprid was 151 nm.

Digital light processing (DLP) is one of the most important additive manufacture technologies to fabricate ceramic parts with complex geometries. Compared with pure photosensitive resin, the cure performance of ceramic suspensions is obviously different due to the optical property change after the addition of ceramic powders. In this paper, a unique oxidation process was used to modify the optical properties of nitride powders including AlN and Si3N4. The properties of oxidized ceramics were investigated and the cure performance of ceramic suspensions was then characterized. The effect of oxidation time on cure performance was evaluated. The results showed that for AlN, oxidation process leads to the smaller cure depth and smaller excess cure width as compared with non-oxidized AlN and for Si3N4, oxidation process leads to the larger cure depth and larger excess cure width as compared with non-oxidized Si3N4, indicating that both refractive index and light absorbance of ceramic powders have obvious effects on cure behaviors. Additionally, the cure behavior of oxidized ceramic suspension in this study shows that the relationship of cure depth vs. incident energy agrees well with Beer- Lambert model, but the excess cure width vs. incident energy is not consistent with quasi Beer-Lambert model due to the nature of digital micromirror device (DMD).

This study uses silicon wafer as the substrate, on which a multi-layered structure is formed. This structure includes a 50-nm indium tin oxide (ITO) film, ZnO films with variable thickness and ZnO nanorods of various radii and height on the top. This kind of coating can enhance solar cell productivity at omnidirectional angles because there is a gradual declination of the refractive index. The multi-layered structure were designed and tested using Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, and this reduced it reflectance to

Nonlinear optical material Zinc Picolinate dihydrate (ZPD) was synthesized by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The grown crystals were characterised by Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The presence of functional groups in the grown crystal was analyzed using FT-IR spectrum. The UV–vis spectrum shows a low absorption in the entire visible region. Optical band gap of the grown crystal was found to be 4.46 eV. The evaluation of optical constants by employing UV–visible absorbance data such as, reflectance, extinction coefficient, refractive index, are supportive towards good performance as NLO devices. The nonlinear optical behavior from the non-centrosymmetric crystal was observed by the generation of frequency doubled (2ω) optical radiation when subjected to pulsed Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm,10 ns,10 Hz) using Kurtz-Perry method.

The study of refractive index provides the complete picture of material bodies with reference to their major properties like physical, chemical, optical, etc., and hence decides the behavior of the material body at macro level. Measurement of refractive index in small volume samples using a U-shaped extrinsic fiber optic sensor based on the principle of direct contact evanescent wave absorption can be employed to detect such information. In order to obtain such measurements, a U-shaped glass probe connected between a light transmitter and an optical detector using two PCS multimode optical fibers of the same diameters (200/230 μm) was developed and investigated in the present study. Liquid mixtures prepared using Toluene and Acetic acid taking at different proportions making total volume equivalent to 20 ml employing a two burette system. When the liquid mixtures are applied on the U-shaped probe the light reaching the detector from the source was shown varying depending upon the refractive index of the mixture. The changes in the transmitted power spectra were measured as a function of absorption of higher order evanescent wave modes at various refractive index values at different temperature levels ranging from 20 °C to 60 °C of the mixture and by repeating the experiment with various operating wavelengths (630 nm, 660 nm, 820 nm & 850 nm). The calibrated curves were plotted, which can be used to determine the refractive index of liquids at various temperatures with high degree of accuracy, precision and sensitivity measurements, exploiting all the benefits offered by the optical fiber communication systems.

Coherently coupled microcavity lasers have desirable properties for emerging applications. We use 2-dimensional complex refractive index waveguide modeling of 2-element photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays to analyze their supermodes. The complex modal effective indices are used in turn to calculate the complex coupling coefficient between the laser array elements. An analysis of the effects of array design parameters, such as photonic crystal period, fill-factor, or confinement, to engineer the coupling coefficient for the desired properties is given and example designs for 850 nm arrays are presented.

Experimental studies into the beam parameter product ( BPP ) of 940–980 nm GaAs-based high-power diode lasers are presented. Such lasers exhibit broadening far field and narrowing near field with increasing bias, with BPP increasing tenfold over the diffraction limit. First, spectrally-resolved beam profile measurements of lasers with monolithically-integrated gratings are presented, showing that a reproducible series of spatially-extended optical modes makes up the optical field. Then, changes to the device construction are presented, enabling effects limiting BPP to be inferred and addressed. Process- and package-induced effects can be minimized by design, while the effects of carrier, gain and temperature profiles dominate. Self-heating within the laser stripe raises the refractive index, forming a thermal lens, and the variation in curvature of this lens with bias and device construction directly affects BPP . Temperature non-uniformity along the resonator is also shown to strongly degrade BPP . Moreover, current spreading and the resulting lateral carrier accumulation (LCA) amplify high-order, high- BPP modes, thus degrading BPP for any given thermal lens. This LCA-induced degradation is shown to be suppressed by regrown lateral current-blocking structures. Finally, a flatter thermal lens and lower BPP can be achieved using thermal engineering, via changes to the epitaxial design or device layout.

This letter presents a novel hybrid design approach for the Fresnel zone lenses (FZL). The method combines the two conventional design approaches: grooved and perforated methods. Perforated lenses minimize the shadow blockage that grooved lenses suffer from, and therefore provide improved antenna gain. However, the fabrication of the low refractive index regions in the perforated lenses is challenging due to the limited manufacturing resolution, which means low refractive index dielectrics cannot be realized. The proposed hybrid FZL design utilizes the perforated method for the inner regions and applies the grooved method for the outer regions. This paper describes the equations used to optimize the design and gives the general design guidelines. A hybrid FZL antenna that operates at the center frequency of 33 GHz is presented. Measurement results show that the hybrid FZL improved the realized gain by up to 3.2 dB and the -3 dB gain bandwidth by up to 2 GHz when compared with the equivalent grooved FZL.

A single-polarization fiber is an important device in many applications ranging from communications to sensors. However, most of the single-polarization fibers focus on linear polarization, and the single-polarization fiber supporting a circular polarization remains a challenge. Here, we propose a novel wavelength-tunable single-circular-polarization (SCP) twisted photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The single left-circular polarization and single right-circular polarization operate around $1.665 ~\mu \text{m}$ and $1.700 ~\mu \text{m}$ , respectively. The resonance can be tuned by adjusting the twist rate of PCF and the refractive index filling. The SCP bandwidth is up to 20 nm, and the polarization extinction ratio is as high as 1.3 dB/cm. This design not only extends the single-polarization fiber to circular polarization but also provides a twisting PCF application.

One of the key elements for early diagnosis of acute and severe diseases is the development of ultra-sensitive detection methods, which are required to analyze the pathological state of the human body from trace amounts of substances in blood or urine. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber biosensors, particularly those based on tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBG), have emerged in recent years as a novel solution for in-situ biomedical detection. TFBGs can sensitively detect the physical and chemical interactions between biomolecules in real-time by sensing minute changes in refractive index, even in vivo. The TFBG-based SPR method can achieve rapid and accurate analysis of biological samples by demodulating the wavelength, intensity, phase and polarization state of the optical spectrum. In addition, TFBG-based SPR fiber optic sensors are capable of simultaneously detecting the absolute or relative values of multiple parameters. This effectively eliminates the interference from the ambient environment and ensures the stability and reliability of the sensor.

A series of Hafnium dioxide (HfO2) thin films with nominal thickness of 5–350 nm were reactively deposited on silicon（100）substrates at 200 °C using electron-beam evaporation. Based on the measurement and characterization techniques of spectroscopic ellipsometry, X ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, the effect of growth thickness on the refractive index and crystallization of HfO2 film grown under the same conditions was studied. The results indicate that the change of refractive index of HfO2 film is closely related to the change of microstructure i.e., grain size and crystallization which change obviously with the increasing growth thickness. The average refractive index at 633 nm decreases about from 1.97 to 1.84 with the increase of the average size about from 0.5 nm to 7~8 nm and the crystallinity from zero to 74% when the thickness of HfO2 film increases from 5 nm to 350 nm. Meanwhile, a critical growth thickness of HfO2 film, somewhere on order of 130 nm, is confirmed at which the film transforms from an amorphous to a polycrystalline monoclinic structure. The sharp change of microstructure near the critical thickness value of HfO2 film leads to the abrupt change of optical properties of HfO2 film, such as the turning behaviors of the refractive index curve. The correlation between phase transformation, size and orientation of crystallite, packing density and hence the refractive index is established. The possible interpretations are proposed to well understand the underlying mechanism of the evolution of optical properties in HfO2 film-forming process.

This letter presents an end-fire fan-beam radiation antenna by utilizing a gradient refractive index metamaterial lens. The lens includes one core and two impedance matching layers which are both based on the proposed metamaterial unit cells with a large refractive index variation range. An incident wave is excited from the antenna source and propagates to the lateral side of the lens. Two parallel plates set for the TE1 mode condition are utilized such that E-plane radiating beam can be controlled. To validate our proposed design, a prototype working at 10 GHz is fabricated and measured. Measured results are in good agreement with the simulation. The height and thickness of the metamaterial lens are about 0.44 0 and 0.36 0, where 0 is the wavelength of the center frequency in free space. The measured E- and H- planes 3-dB beamwidths are 25o and 82o at the center frequency, respectively. The measured peak gain of the antenna is about 11.1 dBi, which implies a 5.4 dB gain enhancement compared with initial radiation source. Furthermore, this lens offers a high aperture efficiency of 72.4%.

Stereolithography is one of the most widely used additive manufacturing techniques for preparing high precision and complex ceramic components. Due to the high optical absorbance and refractive index of SiC powder, the rapid stereolithography of SiC ceramics components has become a key challenge. Here, we innovatively use graded silica to improve the curing thickness, rheological and settling performance of the slurry. And we presented a preparation method of SiC ceramic slurry for stereolithography with high solid content, low viscosity, low sedimentation rate and high curing thickness. The printable precision of the slurry is more than 75 μm, the dynamic viscosity is less than 2 Pa·s, and the 24 h sedimentation height is less than 5%. This strategy demonstrates a tantalizing possibility and promising prospect to rapid stereolithography of large size SiC ceramic green body.

A method to determine the optimum laser parameters for maximizing laser induced refractive index change (LIRIC) while avoiding exceeding the damage threshold for different materials with high water content (in particular, polymers such as hydrogels or the human cornea) is proposed. The model is based upon two previous independent models for LIRIC and for laser induced optical breakdown (LIOB) threshold combined in a simple manner. This work provides qualitative and quantitative estimates for the parameters leading to a maximum LIRIC effect below the threshold of LIOB.

[EN]In general, a sensor is used to monitor a single parameter only, and in many cases, a reference sensor is necessary to compensate the effect of temperature. Here, we demonstrate that a single supermode interferometer is capable of monitoring two parameters simultaneously. Said interferometer was fabricated with a segment of strongly coupled multicore fiber fusion spliced at the end of a standard single mode fiber. The free end of the multicore fiber was flat, thus, it behaved as a low reflectivity mirror whose reflection depended on the external refractive index. The reflection spectrum of our supermode interferometer consisted of well-defined periodic maxima and minima whose values and position varied when the interferometer was exposed to refractive index and temperature changes. In the Fourier domain, the changes of the interference pattern can be decoded easily. We demonstrate that the supermode interferometer here proposed can be useful to measure the thermo-optic coefficient of a sample. An important advantage of the device reported here is that the length of the multicore fiber is not determinant on the performance of the sensor. In addition, the device can be reused multiple times. This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund under Grants PGC2018-101997-B-I00 and RTI2018-094669-B-C31, and in part by the Departamento de Educacion del GobiernoVasco, underGrant IT933-16.

A new design of segmented cladding fiber (SCF) was proposed and fabricated in silica glass. The silica glass SCF had a central core and hexagonal wings with higher refractive indices than silica cladding. The proposed SCF was analyzed numerically in terms of the confinement loss and the effective mode area using finite element method (FEM). In experiments, SCF preform was prepared by a stack-and-draw method using two types of pre-drawn rods: silica rods for the cladding and Al-doped silica rods for the higher refractive index segments and the central core. The latter was fabricated in the powder in tube (PIT) process by optimizing the heating cycles and the bubble removal during the sintering process. Light guidance along the SCF was experimentally confirmed and its intensity patterns in the near-field at the wavelengths 0.980 μm and 1.550 μm were characterized. With the proposed SCF, all silica SCF fabrication feasibility was confirmed, which can open a new alternative for large mode area fibers.

Embedding strong photonic stopbands into traditional optical fibre that can directly access and sense the outside environment is challenging, relying on tedious nano-processing steps that result in fragile thinned fibre. Ultrashort-pulsed laser filaments have recently provided a non-contact means of opening high-aspect ratio nano-holes inside of bulk transparent glasses. This method has been extended here to optical fibre, resulting in high density arrays of laser filamented holes penetrating transversely through the silica cladding and guiding core to provide high refractive index contrast Bragg gratings in the telecommunication band. The point‐by‐point fabrication was combined with post-chemical etching to engineer strong photonic stopbands directly inside of the compact and flexible fibre. Fibre Bragg gratings with sharply resolved π-shifts are presented for high resolution refractive index sensing from \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${n}_{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}$$\end{document}nH = 1 to 1.67 as the nano-holes were readily wetted and filled with various solvents and oils through an intact fibre cladding., Engineered stop bands to sense an ambient environment can enable many applications. Here, the authors demonstrate well-controlled processes to open high-aspect ratio nanoholes through optical fibre for Bragg gratings in the telecomm spectrum and to enable high-resolution refractive index sensing

We propose a millimeter-wave (mmWave) sensor to monitor gases and aerosols based on time-of-flight (ToF), thus, on the real refractive index. It utilizes an ultrawideband frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar operating from 72 to 92 GHz at a sampling rate of 500 Hz. Also, we introduce a model for simulation of the refractive index of arbitrary gases at mmWave frequencies using molecular spectroscopic data. Simulations then allow the identification of the respective gas under test. We characterized the performance of the sensor regarding the refractive index within various experiments. The precision is 0.027 ppm, and the 20-h long-term stability is better than 0.2 ppm. The linearity is at least 1.5 ppm. Due to sophisticated temperature compensation, the temperature drift is less than 10 ppm for 30 K. Since the sensor is accurate, precise, and robust, it is perfect for in-process real-time monitoring and classification of gases or aerosols in the industry.

Broadband achromatic subdiffraction focusing is in urgent need in application of imaging. However, the previously published broadband achromatic metalenses are restricted by diffraction effect or limited efficiency. In this communication, a new gradient refractive index (GRIN) lens with a modified refractive index (RI) profile of classical Luneburg lens is proposed and designed based on a radial gradient periodic structure. Highly efficient achromatic subdiffraction focusing with full width at half maximum (FWHM) around $0.36\lambda $ and large numerical aperture (NA) of 1.26 has been accomplished. The sample of the proposed GRIN lens is manufactured by 3-D printing technology. Experimental results of the near- and far-field are well consistent with those of theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. This GRIN lens could yield subdiffraction focusing spot with high focusing efficiency (above 74%) from 8 to 16 GHz. Directive far-field radiation (side lobes below −7 dB over an ultrabroadband frequency range with bandwidth ratio of 120% (4–16 GHz)) is also achieved. The demonstrated GRIN lens has a great potential to be applied in the subdiffraction imaging system in the future.

A unique data set derived from remote sensing, airborne, and ground-based in situ measurements is presented. This measurement report highlights the known complexity of comparing multiple aerosol optical parameters examined with different approaches considering different states of humidification and atmospheric aerosol concentrations. Mie-theory-based modeled aerosol optical properties are compared with the respective results of airborne and ground-based in situ measurements and remote sensing (lidar and photometer) performed at the rural central European observatory at Melpitz, Germany. Calculated extinction-to-backscatter ratios (lidar ratios) were in the range of previously reported values. However, the lidar ratio is a function of the aerosol type and the relative humidity. The particle lidar ratio (LR) dependence on relative humidity was quantified and followed the trend found in previous studies. We present a fit function for the lidar wavelengths of 355, 532, and 1064 nm with an underlying equation of fLR(RH, γ(λ))=fLR(RH=0,λ)×(1-RH)-γ(λ), with the derived estimates of γ(355 nm) = 0.29 (±0.01), γ(532 nm) = 0.48 (±0.01), and γ(1064 nm) = 0.31 (±0.01) for central European aerosol. This parameterization might be used in the data analysis of elastic-backscatter lidar observations or lidar-ratio-based aerosol typing efforts. Our study shows that the used aerosol model could reproduce the in situ measurements of the aerosol particle light extinction coefficients (measured at dry conditions) within 13 %. Although the model reproduced the in situ measured aerosol particle light absorption coefficients within a reasonable range, we identified many sources for significant uncertainties in the simulations, such as the unknown aerosol mixing state, brown carbon (organic material) fraction, and the unknown aerosol mixing state wavelength-dependent refractive index. The modeled ambient-state aerosol particle light extinction and backscatter coefficients were smaller than the measured ones. However, depending on the prevailing aerosol conditions, an overlap of the uncertainty ranges of both approaches was achieved.

The diffraction of light by reflective holographic gratings in a layer placed between the coating and the substrate having refractive indices different from the average refractive index of the inserted layer is investigated. Significant differences between the reflection and transmission coefficients of the light diffracted on such a holographic grating with a change in the modulation amplitude of the refractive index of the layer, and the reflection and transmission coefficients of reflection gratings in matched structures are established. It is shown that at a large width of the layer in which the reflective holographic grating is located, there is a significant rotation of the plane of polarization of reflected and transmitted diffracted waves with a change in the modulation amplitude of the layer, caused by Fresnel reflection of light at the layer boundaries.

A low-loss all-straight optical fiber vector magnetic field sensor (OFVMS) based on magnetic fluid (MF) is designed and proposed. The sensing structure is composed of a Section of the C-type optical fiber (CTF) embedded in a pair of multi-mode optical fibers (MMF) and wrapped in a capillary with MF. The asymmetry of the CTF provides support for the vector magnetic field measurement whose direction is perpendicular to the optical transmission direction. According to the results of experiments, it can be obtained that the refractive index (RI) sensitivity of the sensing structure is as high as −15716.6072 nm/RIU. In addition, the intensity sensitivity of the OFVMS in the calibrated 90° direction can reach 202.23 pm/G between 0 and 123 G. At the same time, the transmission loss of the proposed sensor structure is not increased by the filling of MF. The sensor demonstrated has dominance in low cost, easy manufacture, and lower loss compared with the same type of sensor device, which has application prospects in vector magnetic field sensing.

In the present study, a novel heterostructure of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors has been proposed based on two-dimensional (2D) materials. 2D materials have attracted a huge response in the area of SPR biosensors, for the sensor performance analysis sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM) are the important parameters. Recently, SPR sensors are getting significant research interest due to their variety of applications. Fluorinated graphene (fluorographene) and MXene 2D materials have been theoretically investigated in this work, and also discussed about the detection accuracy (DA), sensitivity, FOM, and Full width half maximum (FWHM) for the proposed SPR sensors. It is investigated that the FOM found very high i.e., (347 RIU−1) in this proposed sensor which is ten times greater as per the conventional Au thin film (50 nm) in the visible range SPR sensors at wavelength of 1550 nm. Our study using the novel proposed heterostructure can be developed into a new Surface Plasmon Polarization technique (SPP) SPR sensor material.

Hexagonal porous optical fiber without a central defect is proposed and numerically analyzed with the finite element method (FEM) for transmitting terahertz (THz) electromagnetic wave pulse. In experiments, the transmission characteristics of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hexagonal porous optical fibers were measured using a THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) system. To precisely estimate the effective material loss (EML), we measured the refractive index and absorption coefficient of PTFE in the THz range to use them in FEM analyses, and the EML of the porous fiber was estimated to be lower than that of a bulk rod as large as by a factor of 2 in the frequency range from 0.1 to 0.33 THz. In experiments, we measured the transmission characteristics of both the porous fibers and the bulk rod, to confirm a significant improvement in THz wave transmission nearly by an order of magnitude in the 6G telecommunication window, showing a better performance than theoretical estimations.

Spoof surface plasmons in corrugated metal surfaces allow tight field confinement and guiding even at low frequencies and are promising for compact microwave photonic devices. Here, we use metal-ink printing on flexible substrates to construct compact spoof plasmon resonators. We clearly observe multipole resonances in the microwave frequencies and demonstrate that they are still maintained even under significant bending. Moreover, by combining two resonators of slightly different sizes, we demonstrate spectral filtering via the Vernier effect. We selectively address a target higher-order resonance while suppressing the other modes. Finally, we investigate the index-sensing capability of printed plasmonic resonators. In the Vernier structure, we can control the resonance amplitude and frequency by adjusting a resonance overlap between two coupled resonators. The transmission amplitude can be maximized at a target refractive index, and this can provide more functionalities and increased design flexibility. The metal-ink printing of microwave photonic structures can be applied to various flexible devices. Therefore, we expect that the compact, flexible plasmonic structures demonstrated in this study may be useful for highly functional elements that can enable tight field confinement and manipulation.

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a photosensitive polymer-based micro-nano long-period fiber grating (PPMN-LPFG) for refractive index (RI) sensing. We coat liquid photosensitive polymer on the surface of micro-nano fiber (MNF) and obtain a series of periodically distributed droplets on the MNF due to the Plateau-Rayleigh instability (PRI) property. Then we cure the polymer droplets by using the 532 nm laser illumination. We configure the cladding modulated LPFG based on the periodic polymer points along the MNF. The PPMN-LPFG combines with a strong evanescent field of MNF and cladding modulated LPFG, and thus, it is much more sensitive to the external environment. The experimental results indicate that the spectral dip redshifts from 1404 nm to 1654 nm when the RI changes from 1.3391 to 1.4164. The maximum RI sensitivity is 10419 nm/RIU in the RI range of 1.4102–1.4164. The temperature sensitivity is 0.89 nm/°C in the temperature range of 17.1 °C–50.5 °C. Compared with the RI sensitivity, the temperature crosstalk is negligible. Our simulated and experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed sensor and show the advantages such as high sensitivity, compact size, and good stability.

Imaging platforms that enable long-term, high-resolution imaging of biofilms are required to study cellular level dynamics within bacterial biofilms. By combining high spatial and temporal resolution and low phototoxicity, lattice light sheet microscopy (LLSM) has made critical contributions to the study of cellular dynamics. However, the power of LLSM has not yet been leveraged for biofilm research because the open-on-top imaging geometry using water-immersion objective lenses is not compatible with living bacterial specimens; bacterial growth on the microscope's objective lenses makes long-term time-lapse imaging impossible and raises considerable safety concerns for microscope users. To make LLSM compatible with pathogenic bacterial specimens, we developed hermetically sealed, but optically accessible, microfluidic flow channels that can sustain bacterial biofilm growth for multiple days under precisely controllable physical and chemical conditions. To generate a liquid- and gas-tight seal, we glued a thin polymer film across a 3D-printed channel, where the top wall had been omitted. We achieved negligible optical aberrations by using polymer films that precisely match the refractive index of water. Bacteria do not adhere to the polymer film itself, so that the polymer window provides unobstructed optical access to the channel interior. Inside the flow channels, biofilms can be grown on arbitrary, even nontransparent, surfaces. By integrating this flow channel with LLSM, we were able to record the growth of S. oneidensis MR-1 biofilms over several days at cellular resolution without any observable phototoxicity or photodamage.

Electrochemistry exploits local current heterogeneities at various scales ranging from the micrometer to the nanometer. The last decade has witnessed unprecedented progress in the development of a wide range of electroanalytical techniques allowing to reveal and quantify such heterogeneity through multiscale and multifonctionnal operando probing of electrochemical processes. However most of these advanced electrochemical imaging techniques, employing scanning probes, suffer from either low imaging throughput or limited imaging size. In parallel, optical microscopies, which can image a wide field of view in a single snapshot, have made considerable progress in terms of sensitivity, resolution and implementation of detection modes. Optical microscopies are then mature enough to propose, with basic bench equipment, to probe in a non destructive way a wide range of optical (and therefore structural) properties of a material in situ, in real time: under operating conditions. They offer promising alternative strategies for quantitative high-resolution imaging of electrochemistry. The first sections recall the optical properties of materials and how they can be probed optically. They discuss fluorescence, Raman, surface plasmon resonance, scattering or refractive index. Then the different optical microscopes used to image electrochemical processes are examined along with some strategies to extract quantitative electrochemical information from optical images. Finally the last section reviews some examples of in situ imaging, at micro- to nanometer resolution, and quantification of electrochemical processes ranging from solution diffusion to the conversion of molecular interfaces or solids., Comment: 66 pages, 23 figures. To be published in Encyclopedia of Electrochemistry

This review focuses on the preparation methods and wide applications of optic fiber sensors based on core-offset structure. Firstly, the classification and preparation methods of core-offset structures are introduced. Then, the applications of different types of sensors based on the core-offset structure are investigated, including the measurement of physical parameters such as temperature, strain, refractive index (RI), bending, magnetic field by Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), cascaded sensor, long period fiber grating (LPFG), fiber Bragg grating (FBG), Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) and Surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Compared with the traditional fiber sensor, core-offset structure sensor with a non-axisymmetric characteristic has excellent sensing characteristics, especially in the recognition of bending direction and high RI sensitivity. Furthermore, the design scheme, working principle and sensing characteristics of different core-offset sensors are also briefly described. Finally, the existing challenges and development direction of optic fiber sensors based on core-offset structure is discussed and prospected.

Recent progress in designing optimized microstructured optical fiber spreads an application scenario of optical fiber sensing. In this letter, we demonstrate a novel three-core microstructured optical fiber (TMOF) spliced with single mode fibers (SMFs). Due to low crosstalk and different effective refractive index between three cores in TMOF, multi-beam interference is achieved and verified based on both of experiments and theoretical analysis. In addition, the bending response could also be recorded by the transmission spectrum of TMOF because of the asymmetry of three core effective refractive index. Owing to the consistency of cores responding to temperature changes, the TMOF can effectively suppress the influence of temperature. Theses excellent sensing characteristics indicate the TMOF splicing with SMFs is promising in the field of bending, integrated Mach Zehnder devices and multi-parameter sensing measurement under different temperature.

A ring-shaped structure based on polymer coated no-core fiber (NCF) is presented for simultaneous temperature and pressure measurements. The sensing structure is fabricated by splicing the partially coated NCF between single-mode fibers and bending it into a loop. The anti-resonance effect is formed in the NCF and the resonant dips have wavelength shift responses to the temperature and displacement variations. It should be noted that the increase of temperature leads to a decrease in the polymer coating refractive index and changes the displacement measurement sensitivity, thus, the compensation algorithm is required to resolve this cross-sensitivity problem. Combining the ring-shaped structure with the elastic diaphragm encapsulation can convert seawater pressure into structural deformation displacement to achieve pressure measurement. The experimental and simulation results show that this sensor offers a high temperature sensitivity of −5.098 nm/°C with the resolution of $2\times 10^{-4}$ °C and a pressure sensitivity of −2.368 nm/MPa with the resolution of $0.4\times 10^{-3}$ MPa. In addition, the sensing performances could be changed by adjusting the NCF size and the ring-shaped structure diameter, which enables this sensing structure to have a broader application potential for seawater parameter measurement.

We demonstrate co-doped phosphor-in-glass (PiG) for high performance white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) employing reduction of red/green phosphors interaction and antireflection coating (ARC). In this study, the novelties are a suitable selection of the 650-nm red and 540-nm green phosphor materials to reduce the mutual interaction between the emission of green phosphor and the absorption of red phosphor, evidenced by photoluminescence spectroscopy, and then an ARC on both sides of the PiG to reduce Fresnel reflection loss. Therefore, the PiG with high luminous efficiency of 63 lm/W, high color rendering index (CRI) of 96, and less amount of phosphor material are obtained. The overall luminous efficiency of the PiG-based WLED is improved by about 15% and the total amount of phosphors is reduced by about 58%. This proposed of co-doped PiG with excellent performance and less amount of phosphor material usage is essential to meet the economic requirement for high-quality WLEDs indoor lighting applications.

Luminous energy utilization is a critical factor that directly affects the performance of photothermal conversion materials. However, in the process of photothermal conversion, there is always a thorny problem of low utilization of solar energy due to high reflectivity. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, the gradient refractive index structure has been introduced to reduce the reflection, increase the absorption, and capture more photons, so as to explore the high conversion efficiency, convenient preparation, and large-scale production of photothermal materials. A new type of photothermal composite material, namely gradient index glass and disordered mesoporous carbon, was prepared by screen printing and low-temperature sintering. Compared with the disordered mesoporous carbon glass film without refractive index, the temperature of the material was 9.375 °C higher under 808 nm laser irradiation for 900 s. This new photothermal material with good photothermal properties and stability will have great potential in the field of photothermal applications.

Nanostructures exhibit excellent antireflection (AR) properties allowing for broadband antireflection and increasing the light incoupling in solar cells. In this paper, the optical effect of different nanostructures on the front side of an organic–inorganic halide perovskite semiconductor solar cell is studied. The transfer matrix optical simulation method (TMM) will be used to model and simulate the solar cell while using the effective medium theory (EMT) to model the effective refractive indices of the nanostructures. By optimizing the height of each nanostructure, it was found that the moth-eye nanostructure had the best performance, reducing the reflection by ~ 7.8%, thus enhancing the optical current density by ~ 13.5% and increasing the overall efficiency by 2.22%. Additional optical analysis methods were used to analyze and characterize the effect of the added AR nanostructures such as the solar-weighted reflectance (SWE), the solar absorptance enhancement (SWR), current density loss analysis ( $${J}_{\mathrm{loss}}$$ ), and finally, the spectral photovoltaic output (SPV).

We theoretically propose a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based fiber optic refractive index (RI) sensor. A surface plasmon exciting metallic grating formed with the alternation of indium tin oxide (ITO) and silver (Ag) stripes is considered on the core of the fiber. A thin film of silicon is used as an overlay. Silicon film not only protects the metallic grating from oxidation but also enhances the field to improve the device sensitivity. The sensor is characterized in terms of sensitivity, detection accuracy (DA), figure of merit (FoM), and quality factor (QF). The maximum sensitivity in the RI range 1.33 to 1.38 refractive index unit (RIU) is reported to be ~25 µm/RIU in infra-red region of investigation.

Waveplates are widely used in photonics to control the polarization of light1,2. Often, they are fabricated from birefringent crystals that have different refractive indices along and normal to the crystal axis. Similar optical components are found in the natural world, including the eyes of mantis shrimp3,4 and the iridescence of giant clams5, fish6 and plants7. Optical retardation in biology relies on sophisticated self-assembly, whereas man-made systems comprise multiple-layered materials8–11. Here we report a discovery that bridges these two design principles. We observe wideband achromatic retardation in the visible and near-infrared (532–800 nm) regions for Cs4PbBr6 perovskite crystals embedded with CsPbBr3 nanocrystals. We explain our observations as matched dispersions of the refractive indices of the ordinary and extraordinary rays caused by the ordered embedding of the nanocrystals in the host. The wideband performance and ease of fabrication of these perovskite materials are attractive for future applications. Perovskite crystals of Cs4PbBr6 embedded with CsPbBr3 nanocrystals are shown to act as wideband, achromatic waveplates in the visible and near-infrared regions.

Highly transparent leafhopper (Thaia rubiginosa) wings are self-decorated with embroidered ball-shaped proteinaceous brochosmoes as distinct anti-predator defenses. The non-sticky brochosomal coating serves as antireflective structures for camouflage in vegetated environments. Inspired by the leafhopper wings, this study reports a new type of reversible antireflection coating enabled by integrating self-assembly methodologies using a shape memory polymer. The resulting embroidered ball-like structure array establishes a refractive index transition on surface, and thereby behaves omnidirectional antireflective characteristics in a broadband visible light region. Interestingly, the highly transparent appearance can be instantly erased and recovered by submerging in common liquids, such as water and ethanol, or by applying contact pressures at ambient conditions. Furthermore, the reversibility and structure-shape effect on the antireflective characteristics are systematically evaluated in this study.

An amplifier model based on the Yb-doped segment cladding fiber (SCF) is proposed in this paper. Three contributions to heat source are taken into account in the proposed model, including the quantum defect (QD), photodarkening (PD), and propagation loss (PL). Thermal-induced mode characteristics, amplification performance, modal gain competition, and high order modes (HOMs) filtering effect are theoretically investigated. Results show that the heat load generated from the Yb-doped SCF core makes the pre-design refractive index distribution into parabolic profile, and results in mode loss and effective mode area decline. Therefore, HOMs with low mode loss are amplified easily. Modal gain competition increases power content of HOMs that leads to laser performance degradation. Leaky cladding and bending operation introduce HOMs discrimination that can suppress HOMs amplification effectively. In high power pump, the counter-pumping amplifier presents higher temperature increase than the co-pumping one, while the high temperature location in Yb-doped SCF depends on pumping schemes. The results in this paper will provide guidance to optimize the structure of Yb-doped large mode area SCF and improve the thermal management of the high-power fiber lasers.

A new U-shape panda polarization-maintaining fiber (PPMF) based microfiber interferometer coated with graphene oxide (GO) film was proposed and experimentally demonstrated for relative humidity (RH) sensing. Experimental results show that the U-shape sensor has refractive index (RI) sensitivity of 1692.5 nm/RIU in the RI range of 1.33 when the diameter of the taper waist is 10.08 μm. The surface of the U-shape sensor was then modified chemically and coated with a thin layer of GO film (59.64 nm) for RH detection and the sensitivity is proportional to RH: as RH increases from 30% to 98%, the sensitivity increases from 0.111 to 0.361 nm/%RH and the response time is 0.28 s. In addition, the cross sensitivity to temperature, stability, reproducibility, and response/recovery time of the RH sensor were studied in detail. The proposed U-shape fiber RH sensor has advantage of high sensitivity, good reproducibility and fast response (0.28 s), which has potential application in areas requiring dynamic measurement of RH variations such as industrial product fabrication process control and breath state monitoring.

The engineering of evanescent fields from optical waveguides can increase the density level of integrated optical devices. The replacement of an all-isotropic cladding by an all-dielectric metamaterial one provides greater control of the evanescent fields. This study investigates the performance of an all-dielectric two-dimensional metamaterial cladding in strip waveguides. The waveguide core and higher refractive index of the metamaterial cladding are composed of the same material, and for sake of numerical demonstration, Si3N4 was used as a higher refractive index embedded in SiO2 (lower refractive index). The advantages of such an approach are investigated in waveguide bends. By comparing the metamaterial cladding proposal to a conventional cladding (all-isotropic one), the quasi-TM mode presented a reduction of about 61.5% of bending loss per 180° turn.

In this article, types of broadband focusing lens are presented based on the ray inserting method (RIM) in the $Ku$ -band. The realizable inhomogeneous isotropic dielectric media is obtained to converge wavefront produced by a source on a focal point. The proposed three lenses are broadband because of good matching to the source and the surroundings. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme and the full-wave simulation are used to confirm the results in the $Ku$ -band. To validate designed lenses’ performance, the circular focusing lens is realized and fabricated. The results of simulations and experiments indicate good performances of the designed lens in the wide frequency bandwidth.

Internal waves generated by the movement of surface and subsurface vehicles in the ocean have specific importance in maritime applications. These types of waves are categorized as forced internal waves. In this article, an attempt using a novel optical method is made to study the forced internal waves that are generated by a large surface vehicle in a controlled sea exercise. The optical method uses a diode laser operating at 635 nm and a lateral-effect position-sensitive photodetector. The laser beam undergoes modulation in both its intensity and beam positions with respect to the density variations that are caused in the stratified ocean by the forced internal waves. The experimental scheme, the system aspect of the optical method, and supporting theoretical aspects are detailed with corroborating experimental results. It is observed that the frequency of the forced internal waves also remains within the band of naturally occurring ambient oscillations in the ocean. The obtained results indicate that the forced internal waves detected by the optical method can be used for detecting the movement of maritime vehicles in the ocean.

A type of flexible hydrogel optical fiber, which consisted of a permeable core/clad structure with a step-index profile for highly efficient excitation light guiding and fluorescence emission collecting, has been judiciously designed and fabricated. The effects of refractive index and core/clad diameter on propagation loss of hydrogel optical fiber have been examined and verified theoretically and experimentally. To demonstrate the feasibility of the designed optical fiber for fluorescence sensing, in a representative experiment two types of fluorescent materials serving as a pH probe and internal reference were integrated into the core of the designed hydrogel optical fiber to obtain a ratiometric pH sensor, which eliminated the disturbance of the external environment. The prepared fluorescent sensor displayed linear responses to pH values ranging from 3.79 to 9.55 with a high sensitivity of 0.68 per pH unit, indicating the great potential of the hydrogel fiber-based sensor for on-site, real-time, and highly sensitive detection of pH in aqueous environments.