基于人工局域表面等离激元的高灵敏传感研究进展（特邀）

人工局域表面等离激元是一种基于表面等离激元超材料的电磁谐振模式，在微波、毫米波和太赫兹频段可实现深亚波长场束缚、高品质因子、高介电灵敏度等优异传感特性，并且与平面印刷电路工艺兼容，易于和信号检测电路、无线通信电路集成，因此在小型化便携式的物联传感领域展现出广阔的应用前景。本文重点介绍人工局域表面等离激元传感的新原理、相关技术及典型应用。在传感新原理方面，讨论了新型人工局域表面等离激元的谐振结构、电磁模式、以及涡旋波传感原理；在传感指标提升技术方面，探讨了模式间耦合和有源放大两种传感增强方法；在应用探索方面，回顾了人工局域表面等离激元在溶液浓度传感、细胞传感和力学量传感等方向的代表性工作，介绍了小型化人工局域表面等离激元传感系统的最新进展。最后，对人工局域表面等离激元传感的发展趋势进行了讨论和展望。     

人工局域表面等离激元诱导的超透射

利用有限元方法研究了理想导体薄膜中齿状孔阵列在微波频段的超透射现象.齿状结构的引入使得孔阵列的透射谱发生红移,在更深的亚波长区实现全透射.近场分析表明分布在齿状孔上的局域态对红移起了关键作用.研究发现单个齿孔支持人工局域表面等离激元多极子模式,与超透射相关的是偶极子模式.该研究方案可以推广到红外与太赫兹频段.     

表面等离激元——机理、应用与展望

等离激元光子学(plasmonics)的研究内容是金属纳米结构独特的光学性质及其应用.随着纳米科技的进步,等离激元光子学已经迅速发展成为一门新兴学科,在生物、化学、能源、信息等领域具有重要的应用前景.文章主要介绍表面等离激元(surface plasmons,SPs)的一些基本物理性质,包括局域的表面等离激元(localized surface plas-mon,LSP)和传导的表面等离激元(propagating surface plasmon polariton,SPP),文章还介绍了表面等离激元的几个重要的应用方向,例如生物/化学传感器、表面等离激元激光、光开关器件以及表面等离激元光逻辑运算,等等.     

局域表面等离激元

局域表面等离激元使得贵金属纳米颗粒具有丰富的光学性质,其应用涵盖能源、生物医学、安全、信息、超材料等诸多领域。文章简要介绍局域表面等离激元的基本性质、贵金属纳米结构中的局域表面等离激元共振耦合以及具有局域表面等离激元特性的贵金属纳米结构的一些重要应用。     

石墨烯等离激元的光学性质及其应用前景

石墨烯等离激元由于其独特的电学可调性、本征低衰减以及局域光场高度增强等特性, 引起了广泛的关注并迅速成长为一门新的学科分支--石墨烯表面等离激元光子学. 本文介绍了石墨烯等离激元的一些基本性质, 包括色散关系、局域的等离激元和传导的等离激元以及石墨烯等离激元对其周边介电环境的敏感性等. 在此基础上, 进一步介绍了石墨烯等离激元在太赫兹到中红外频段的应用, 比如有源光调制器的一些功能器件和增强的红外光谱探测等.     

银纳米线表面等离激元波导的能量损耗

金属纳米结构的表面等离激元可以突破光学衍射极限,为光子器件的微型化和集成光学芯片的实现奠定基础.基于表面等离激元的各种基本光学元件已经研制出来.然而,由于金属结构的固有欧姆损耗以及向衬底的辐射损耗等,表面等离激元的传输能量损耗较大,极大地制约了其在纳米光子器件和回路中的应用.研究能量损耗的影响因素以及如何有效降低能量损耗对未来光子器件的实际应用具有重要意义.本文从纳米线表面等离激元的基本模式出发,介绍了它在不同条件下的场分布和传输特性,在此基础上着重讨论纳米线表面等离激元传输损耗的影响因素和测量方法以及目前常用的降低传输损耗的思路.最后给出总结以及如何进一步降低能量损耗方法的展望.表面等离激元能量损耗的相关研究对于纳米光子器件的设计和集成光子回路的构建有着重要作用.     

层级人工等离激元结构增强的太赫兹光电导天线（特邀）（英文）

为提高太赫兹光电导天线输出效率,提出了一种基于层级人工等离激元结构的光电导天线的设计方法。层级人工等离激元结构由纳米尺度金属块阵列和微米尺度周期栅格结合而成,理论与仿真结果表明,前者通过人工局域表面等离激元谐振效应可提高光子-电子转换效率,后者则利用人工表面等离激元结构基模的禁带和高阶模式与电流源模式之间的正交性增强了光电导天线的垂直方向性。集成了层级人工等离激元结构的光电导天线结合了两种结构的优点,数值计算结果表明,其输出效率优于分别采用两种结构的方案。相较于未改进的光电导天线,层级人工等离激元结构在较宽频带范围内（0.86～1.51 THz）实现了光电导天线垂直方向辐射功率密度的提高。     

介质填充型二次柱面等离激元透镜的亚波长聚焦

本文提出了一种亚波长聚焦的表面等离激元透镜,该透镜由二氧化硅填充金膜纳米狭缝阵列组成,金膜的出射表面为二次柱面.表面等离激元在狭缝入口处激发并沿狭缝传输,在狭缝出口转变为带有一定相位延迟的自由空间传播的光波.通过对透镜结构参数的控制,可以调节来自各狭缝的光波间的相对相位,使它们在设定的焦点处进行相长干涉,从而实现聚焦效果.本文用时域有限差分法数值计算了二次柱面等离激元透镜的聚焦特性.数值模拟结果表明,所设计的孔径为2μm的透镜,能够实现微米级焦距和焦深、且焦斑半高宽低至0.4倍波长的亚波长聚焦.该表面等离激元透镜结构简单紧凑、尺寸小,有利于光子器件的集成,在集成光学、光学微操纵、超分辩率成像、光存储、生化传感等相关领域有潜在的应用价值.     

金膜上亚波长小孔阵列表面等离激元颜色滤波器偏振性质

金属薄膜上制备的表面等离激元颜色滤波器具有很强的颜色可调性. 在200 nm厚的金膜上, 通过聚焦离子束刻蚀, 制备一系列周期逐渐变化的圆形、方形、矩形亚波长尺寸小孔方阵列表面等离激元颜色滤波器, 改变入射光的偏振方向, 观察其超透射滤波现象. 研究发现: 对于矩形小孔阵列, 其透射光颜色随入射光偏振方向的变化而改变; 而对于圆形、方形的小孔阵列, 其透射光颜色对入射光的偏振方向并不敏感. 分析表明, 对于金膜上刻蚀的小孔结构, 虽然结构的周期性导致的表面等离激元极化子会对透射光的颜色变化产生一定影响, 但是随小孔形状变化的局域表面等离激元共振才是影响透射光颜色的决定性因素. 如果入射光没有在小孔中激发出局域表面等离激元, 则表面等离激元极化子对透射光的影响也会消失. 根据不同形状小孔周期结构透射光颜色随入射光的偏振变化特点, 制备出了包含两种小孔形状的复合周期结构. 随着入射光偏振方向的改变, 该结构会显示出不同的颜色图案. 关键词： 表面等离激元极化子 局域表面等离激元 颜色滤波器 亚波长小孔阵列     

金属微结构纳米线中等离激元传播和分光特性

本文从理论和实验两方面探讨了具有微结构的金属纳米线系统中表面等离激元传播规律和分光特性. 我们由麦克斯韦方程组出发, 利用严格耦合波近似和有限元差分等方法首先从理论上给出了金属纳米线系统中等离激元的色散关系和能带特征, 然后基于微结构的银纳米线及其等离激元能带结构, 设计并制备出等离激元分光原型器件, 实验展示其将不同频率的光在微小空间分离的特性. 该研究结果是我们前期相关工作的延续和补充, 可应用于构造多功能集成的光子芯片和新型亚波长光电材料和器件.     

High-confinement ultra-wideband bandpass filter using compact folded slotline spoof surface plasmon polaritons

A novel bandpass filter(BPF)based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SSPPs)using a compact folded slotline structure is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.The proposed novel SSPPs structure compared with a conventional plasmonic waveguide with slot line SSPPs unit structure at the same size,the considerable advantages in much lower asymptotic frequency with tight field confinement,which enable the proposed filter to be more miniaturization.A high-efficient mode conversion structure is designed to transition from TE-mode to SSPPs-mode by gradient slotline lengths.The low-frequency stop-band can be committed with microstrip to slotline evolution on both sides of the dielectric,while the high-frequency cutoff band is realized by the proposed SSPPs structure.The influence of dispersion relation,electric field distribution,surface current,and structural parameters on the transmission characteristics of the proposed BPF are analyzed by finite difference time domain(FDTD).To validate the design concept,the prototype of the miniaturized SSPPs BPF has been manufactured and measured.The experimental results show high performance of the fabricated sample,in which the working in a range of 0.9 GHz-5.2 GHz with the relative bandwidth is 142%,the insertion loss less than 0.5 dB,the reflection coefficient less than-10 dB,and the group delay is less than one ns.This works provides a mirror for realizing the miniaturization of waveguides,and the application and development of high-confinement SSPPs functional devices in the microwave and THz regimes.     

太赫兹人工电磁媒质研究进展

近年来, 随着太赫兹科学技术的发展, 越来越多的科学家向太赫兹间隙这一传统空白领域发起挑战. 其中, 人工电磁媒质因为能够设计太赫兹波段中紧缺的功能器件而受到广泛关注. 近年来, 对人工电磁媒质尤其是太赫兹方面的研究进展突飞猛进. 人工电磁媒质的性质不仅仅由其构成材料决定, 更与其结构单元的形状和空间排布密切相关. 本文介绍了人工电磁媒质在太赫兹波段的发展、原理、设计和应用, 并着重介绍完美吸波器和人工表面等离激元, 为太赫兹波段功能器件的研究提供了参考, 并对可能的发展方向予以展望.     

Nonlinear spoof surface plasmon polariton phenomena based on conductor metamaterials

We present nonlinear phenomena produced from spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) modes. Below the THz spectrum, artificially textured conducting metastructures on a subwavelength scale generate surface-bound modes and are called SSPP modes, similar to surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes in the visible spectrum. Even though nonlinear effects in the THz domain are negligible, subwavelength metallic gap structures are ideal candidates to realize nonlinear behavior in the THz domain because of slow light propagation, strong electromagnetic confinement, and a high quality factor Q. In particular, when SSPP structures are combined with Kerr nonlinear materials, nonlinear-bistable curves can be observed below the THz spectrum.     

太赫兹表面极化激元

作为束缚于表面或界面的电磁波与极性元激发的耦合模量子,表面极化激元是克服衍射极限的核心物理.在紫外、可见以及近红外波段,表面等离子极化激元展现出了亚波长特性,具有高分辨成像等应用,并发展成为"表面等离子极化激元亚波长光学"学科;在中红外波段,表面声子极化激元发挥着同样的作用.太赫兹波段曾是人类认识的空白区域,近三十年来得以高速发展,其战略意义重大.具有克服衍射极限能力的太赫兹表面极化激元同样是小型化与集成化太赫兹器件,以及太赫兹超高分辨成像的重要物理基础.近几年来,对以石墨烯为代表的二维材料的研究突飞猛进,诞生了"石墨烯表面等离子极化激元亚波长光学"这门学科,并贡献于太赫兹领域.本文对可在太赫兹波段工作的人工超构材料、掺杂半导体、二维电子气、二维材料、拓扑绝缘体等结构材料的表面极化激元进行了较为全面的总结与介绍,为研制克服衍射极限的太赫兹集成光子学器件提供可资借鉴的物理基础.     

Duality of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons on the Complementary Structures of Ultrathin Metal Films

Complementary metal structures manifest a remarkable scattering feature, known as Babinet's principle. Meanwhile, for surface modes confined to one or two dimensions, the relation between the modes on complementary structures has not been thoroughly studied. Here, spoof surface plasmon polaritons supported on complementary metal films are systematically investigated. The duality of electromagnetism guarantees that these surface modes on complementary metal films possess precisely the same dispersion regardless of the geometry of the grooves, which is confirmed by both numerical simulations and experimental measurements. This work may open another avenue for spoof surface plasmon polaritons in both the theoretical and practical aspects.     

Negative-index dispersion and accidental mode degeneracy in an asymmetric spoof-insulator-spoof waveguide

It has been recently demonstrated that negative-index dispersion and mode degeneracy can be achieved by manipulating a spoof-insulator-spoof(SIS) waveguide. In this paper, we propose a new SIS waveguide, which is composed of two spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SSPPs) waveguides drilled with periodic rhomboidal grooves. Both the symmetric and asymmetric cases are investigated. Our simulation results show that the asymmetric SIS waveguides are more significant.By tailoring the tilt of the rhomboidal grooves, the negative-index dispersion can be achieved and the microwave band gap(MBG) can be effectively modulated. At a critical tilt, there appears an accidental mode degeneracy at the edge of the first Brillouin zone. The excitation and propagation of the two coupled modes sustained by the asymmetric SIS waveguides are also demonstrated.     

Single-beam leaky-wave antenna with wide scanning angle and high scanning rate based on spoof surface plasmon polariton

We propose a single-beam leaky-wave antenna (LWA) with a wide-scanning angle and a high-scanning rate based on spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) in this paper. The SSPP transmission line (TL) is etched with periodically arranged circular patches, which converts the slow-wave mode into the fast-wave region for radiation. The proposed LWA is designed, fabricated, and tested. The simulated results imply that the proposed LWA not only achieves a high radiation efficiency of about 81.4%, and a high scanning rate of 12.12, but also has a large scanning angle of 176° over a narrow operation bandwidth of 8.3—9.6 GHz (for |S₁₁|<-10 dB). In addition, the simulated average gain of the LWA can reach as high as 10.9 dBi. The measured scanning angle range is 175° in the operation band of 8.2—9.6 GHz, and the measured average gain is 10.6 dBi. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation, validating its performance. An antenna with high radiation efficiency, wide scanning angle range, and high scanning rate has great potential for application in radar and wireless communication systems.     

Broadband amplification of spoof surface plasmon polaritons at microwave frequencies

Efficient amplification of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is proposed at microwave frequencies by using a subwavelength‐scale amplifier. For this purpose, a special plasmonic waveguide composed of two ultrathin corrugated metallic strips on top and bottom surfaces of a dielectric substrate with mirror symmetry is presented, which is easy to integrate with the amplifier. It is shown that spoof SPPs are able to propagate on the plasmonic waveguide in broadband with low loss and strong subwavelength effect. By loading a low‐noise amplifier chip produced by the semiconductor technology, the first experiment is demonstrated to amplify spoof SPPs at microwave frequencies (from 6 to 20GHz) with high gain (around 20dB), which can be directly used as a SPP amplifier device. The features of strong field confinement, high efficiency, broadband operation, and significant amplification of the spoof SPPs may advance a big step towards other active SPP components and integrated circuits.

     

基于人工表面等离激元的双通带频率选择结构设计

本文提出了一种基于人工表面等离激元的频率选择结构的设计方法：将设计的频率选择表面和金属鱼骨结构阵列相结合得到一种新的频率选择结构.文中采用这种方法设计了一种具有陡截止和高透、高抑制性能的双通带频率选择结构.该结构由金属鱼骨结构阵列和上下两层相同的频率选择表面复合而成.通过仿真可得，该结构的两个通带频率范围分别是3.0–4.1和10.5–10.9 GHz，透射率均在-0.5 dB以上.透射率低于-10 dB的频率范围是4.7–9.2和12.1–18 GHz.在12.4–15.5 GHz频率范围内，该结构的透射率甚至低于-20 dB.在通带内，电磁波可以高效地透过该结构；在阻带内，该结构对电磁波的透射具有较好的抑制作用.测试结果表明用这种方法设计出的频率选择结构的实际性能和仿真基本一致.在金属鱼骨结构空隙中填入轻质泡沫后该结构具有一定的力学承载性能，可以实现结构功能一体化的设计.     

Hybrid surface plasmon polaritons guided by ultrathin metal films

Hybrid surface plasmon polaritons propagating in a new configuration comprising an ultrathin metal film bounded by a positive birefringent crystal on one side and a glass material on the other side are investigated. The results show that the conditions for existence of such hybrid surface plasmon polaritons have a strong dependence on the structure parameters. This feature opens the way for a new type of optical sensor with directional sensitivity.