In this work, we present the design of a polarization independent broadband absorber in the terahertz (THz) frequency range using a metasurface resonator. The absorber comprises of three layers, of which, the top layer is made of a vanadium dioxide (VO2) resonator with an electrical conductivity of σ= 200000 S/m; the bottom layer consists of a planar layer made of gold metal, and a dielectric layer is sandwiched between these two layers. The optimized absorber exhibits absorption greater than 90% from 2.54−5.54 THz. Thus, the corresponding bandwidth of the designed absorber is 3 THz. Further, the thermal tunable absorption and reflection spectra have been analyzed by varying the electrical conductivity of VO2. The impact of the various geometrical parameters on the absorption characteristics has also been assessed. The physics of generation of broadband absorption of the proposed device has been explored using field analysis. Finally, the absorption characteristics of the unit cell has been studied for various incident and polarization angles.
Embedded data are used to retrieve phases quicker with high accuracy in phase-modulated holographic data storage (HDS). We propose a method to design an embedded data distribution using iterations to enhance the intensity of the high-frequency signal in the Fourier spectrum. The proposed method increases the anti-noise performance and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the Fourier spectrum distribution, realizing a more efficient phase retrieval. Experiments indicate that the bit error rate (BER) of this method can be reduced by a factor of one after 10 iterations.
Semiconductor optoelectronic fiber technology has seen rapid development in recent years thanks to advancements in fabrication and post-processing techniques. Integrating the optical and electronic functionality of semiconductor materials into a fiber geometry has opened up many possibilities, such as in-fiber frequency generation, signal modulation, photodetection, and solar energy harvesting. This review provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in semiconductor optoelectronic fibers, including fabrication and post-processing methods, materials and their optical properties. The applications in nonlinear optics, optical-electrical conversion, lasers and multimaterial functional fibers will also be highlighted.
A near-infrared femtosecond laser is focused by a 100 mm-focal-length plano-convex lens to form a laser filament, which is employed to drill holes on copper targets. By shifting or rotating the focusing lens, additional aberration is imposed on the focused laser beam, and significant influence is produced on the aspect ratio and cross-sectional shape of the micro-holes. Experimental results show that when proper aberration is introduced, the copper plate with a thickness of 3 mm can be drilled through with an aspect ratio of 30, while no through-holes can be drilled on 3-mm-thickness copper plates by femtosecond laser with minimized aberration. In addition, when femtosecond laser filament with large astigmatism is used, micro-holes that had a length to width ratio up to 3.3 on the cross-section are obtained. Therefore, the method proposed here can be used to fabricate long oval holes with high aspect ratios.
Given a constitutive relation of the bianisotropic medium, it is not trivial to study how light interacts with the photonic bianisotropic structure due to the limited available means of studying electromagnetic properties in bianisotropic media. In this paper, we study the electromagnetic properties of photonic bianisotropic structures using the finite element method. We prove that the vector wave equation with the presence of bianisotropic is self-adjoint under scalar inner product. we propose a balanced formulation of weak form in the practical implementation, which outperforms the standard formulation in finite element modeling. Furthermore, we benchmark our numerical results obtained from finite element simulation in three different scenarios. These are bianisotropy-dependent reflection and transmission of plane waves incident onto a bianisotropic slab, band structure of bianisotropic photonic crystals with valley-dependent phenomena, and the modal properties of bianisotropic ring resonators. The first two simulated results obtained from our modified weak form yield excellent agreements either with theoretical predictions or available data from the literature, and the modal properties in the last example, i.e., bianisotropic ring resonators as a polarization-dependent optical insulator, are also consistent with the theoretical analyses.
Manipulating circularly polarized (CP) electromagnetic (EM) waves at will is significantly important for a wide range of applications ranging from chiral-molecule manipulations to optical communication. However, conventional EM devices based on natural materials suffer from limited functionalities, bulky configurations, and low efficiencies. Recently, Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) phase metasurfaces have shown excellent capabilities in controlling CP waves in different frequency domains, thereby allowing for multi-functional PB meta-devices that integrate distinct functionalities into single and flat devices. Nevertheless, the PB phase has intrinsically opposite signs for two spins, resulting in locked and mirrored functionalities for right CP and left CP beams. Here we review the fundamentals and applications of spin-decoupled metasurfaces that release the spin-locked limitation of PB metasurfaces by combining the orientation-dependent PB phase and the dimension-dependent propagation phase. This provides a general and practical guideline toward realizing spin-decoupled functionalities with a single metasurface for orthogonal circular polarizations. Finally, we conclude this review with a short conclusion and personal outlook on the future directions of this rapidly growing research area, hoping to stimulate new research outputs that can be useful in future applications.
Indium Gallium Nitride based blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from insufficient crystal quality and serious efficiency droop in large forward current. In this paper, the InGaN-based blue LEDs are grown on sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) films to improve the device light power and weaken the efficiency droop. The effects of oxygen flow rate on the sputtering of AlN films on sapphire and device performance of blue LEDs are studied in detail. The mechanism of external quantum efficiency improvement is related to the change of V-pits density in multiple quantum wells. The external quantum efficiency of 66% and 3-V operating voltage are measured at a 40-mA forward current of with the optimal oxygen flow rate of 4 SCCM.
Cadmium selenide (CdSe) belongs to the binary II-VI group semiconductor with a direct bandgap of ~1.7 eV. The suitable bandgap, high stability, and low manufacturing cost make CdSe an extraordinary candidate as the top cell material in silicon-based tandem solar cells. However, only a few studies have focused on CdSe thin-film solar cells in the past decades. With the advantages of a high deposition rate (~2 µm/min) and high uniformity, rapid thermal evaporation (RTE) was used to maximize the use efficiency of CdSe source material. A stable and pure hexagonal phase CdSe thin film with a large grain size was achieved. The CdSe film demonstrated a 1.72 eV bandgap, narrow photoluminescence peak, and fast photoresponse. With the optimal device structure and film thickness, we finally achieved a preliminary efficiency of 1.88% for CdSe thin-film solar cells, suggesting the applicability of CdSe thin-film solar cells.
Circadian rhythms are considered a masterstroke of natural selection, which gradually increase the adaptability of species to the Earth’s rotation. Importantly, the nervous system plays a key role in allowing organisms to maintain circadian rhythmicity. Circadian rhythms affect multiple aspects of cognitive functions (mainly via arousal), particularly those needed for effort-intensive cognitive tasks, which require considerable top-down executive control. These include inhibitory control, working memory, task switching, and psychomotor vigilance. This mini review highlights the recent advances in cognitive functioning in the optical and multimodal neuroimaging fields; it discusses the processing of brain cognitive functions during the circadian rhythm phase and the effects of the circadian rhythm on the cognitive component of the brain and the brain circuit supporting cognition.
Halide perovskites have attracted tremendous attention as semiconducting materials for various optoelectronic applications. The functional metal-halide octahedral units and their spatial arrangements play a key role in the optoelectronic properties of these materials. At present, most of the efforts for material exploration focus on substituting the constituent elements of functional octahedral units, whereas designing the spatial arrangement of the functional units has received relatively little consideration. In this work, via a global structure search based on density functional theory (DFT), we discovered a metastable three-dimensional honeycomb-like perovskite structure with the functional octahedral units arranged through mixed edge- and corner-sharing. We experimentally confirmed that the honeycomb-like perovskite structure can be stabilized by divalent molecular cations with suitable size and shape, such as 2,2′-bisimidazole (BIM). DFT calculations and experimental characterizations revealed that the honeycomb-like perovskite with the formula of BIMPb2I6, synthesized through a solution process, exhibits high electronic dimensionality, a direct allowed bandgap of 2.1 eV, small effective masses for both electrons and holes, and high optical absorption coefficients, which indicates a significant potential for optoelectronic applications. The employed combination of DFT and experimental study provides an exemplary approach to explore prospective optoelectronic semiconductors via spatially arranging functional units.
In this paper, we introduce an ultra-sensitive optical sensing platform based on the parity-time-reciprocal scaling (PTX)-symmetric non-Hermitian metasurfaces, which leverage exotic singularities, such as the exceptional point (EP) and the coherent perfect absorber-laser (CPAL) point, to significantly enhance the sensitivity and detectability of photonic sensors. We theoretically studied scattering properties and physical limitations of the PTX-symmetric metasurface sensing systems with an asymmetric, unbalanced gain-loss profile. The PTX-symmetric metasurfaces can exhibit similar scattering properties as their PT-symmetric counterparts at singular points, while achieving a higher sensitivity and a larger modulation depth, possible with the reciprocal-scaling factor (i.e., X transformation). Specifically, with the optimal reciprocal-scaling factor or near-zero phase offset, the proposed PTX-symmetric metasurface sensors operating around the EP or CPAL point may achieve an over 100 dB modulation depth, thus paving a promising route toward the detection of small-scale perturbations caused by, for example, molecular, gaseous, and biochemical surface adsorbates.
Metasurfaces are composed of periodic subwavelength nanostructures and exhibit optical properties that are not found in nature. They have been widely investigated for optical applications such as holograms, wavefront shaping, and structural color printing, however, electron-beam lithography is not suitable to produce large-area metasurfaces because of the high fabrication cost and low productivity. Although alternative optical technologies, such as holographic lithography and plasmonic lithography, can overcome these drawbacks, such methods are still constrained by the optical diffraction limit. To break through this fundamental problem, mechanical nanopatterning processes have been actively studied in many fields, with nanoimprint lithography (NIL) coming to the forefront. Since NIL replicates the nanopattern of the mold regardless of the diffraction limit, NIL can achieve sufficiently high productivity and patterning resolution, giving rise to an explosive development in the fabrication of metasurfaces. In this review, we focus on various NIL technologies for the manufacturing of metasurfaces. First, we briefly describe conventional NIL and then present various NIL methods for the scalable fabrication of metasurfaces. We also discuss recent applications of NIL in the realization of metasurfaces. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on each method and suggest perspectives for future research on the high-throughput fabrication of active metasurfaces.
Optical traps have emerged as powerful tools for immobilizing and manipulating small particles in three dimensions. Fiber-based optical traps (FOTs) significantly simplify optical setup by creating trapping centers with single or multiple pieces of optical fibers. In addition, they inherit the flexibility and robustness of fiber-optic systems. However, trapping 10-nm-diameter nanoparticles (NPs) using FOTs remains challenging. In this study, we model a coaxial waveguide that works in the optical regime and supports a transverse electromagnetic (TEM)-like mode for NP trapping. Single NPs at waveguide front-end break the symmetry of TEM-like guided mode and lead to high transmission efficiency at far-field, thereby strongly altering light momentum and inducing a large-scale back-action on the particle. We demonstrate, via finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, that this FOT allows for trapping single 10-nm-diameter NPs at low power.
