Manipulation of plasmonic wavefront and light–matter interaction in metallic nanostructures: A brief review

The control and application of surface plasmons （SPs）, is introduced with particular emphasis on the manipulation of the plasmonic wavefront and light-matter interaction in metallic nanostructures. We introduce a direct design methodology called the surface wave holography method and show that it can be readily employed for wave-front shaping of near-infrared light through a subwavelength hole, it can also be used for designing holographic plasmonic lenses for SPs with complex wavefronts in the visible band. We also discuss several issues of light-matter interaction in plasmonic nanostructures. We show theoretically that amplification of SPs can be achieved in metal nanoparticles incorporated with gain media, leading to a giant reduction of surface plasmon resonance linewidth and enhancement of local electric field intensity. We present an all-analytical semiclassical theory to evaluate spaser performance in a plasmonic nanocavity incorporated with gain media described by the four-level atomic model. We experimentally demonstrate amplified spontaneous emission of SP polaritons and their amplification at the interface between a silver film and a polymer film doped with dye molecules. We discuss various aspects of microscopic and macroscopic manipulation of fluorescent radiation from gold nanorod hybrid structures in a system of either a single nanoparticle or an aligned group of nanoparticles. The findings reported and reviewed here could help others explore various approaches and schemes to manipulate plasmonic wavefront and light-matter interaction in metallic nanostructures for potential applications, such as optical displays, information integration, and energy harvesting technologies.     

Synthesis of Au nanorods in a low pH solution via seed-media method

The gold(Au) nanorods with various aspect ratios are obtained by a seed-media method in low pH growth solution.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and UV-visible spectrophotometry are utilized to characterize the Au nanorods,and the longitudinal absorption peak positions of Au nanorods show different shifting trends of the growth evolutions in various low pH(1～3) solutions. Other influential factors on the shape of Au nanorod are also systematically studied under low pH reaction condition. The positions of longitudinal peak shift between 600 nm and 900 nm, with the aspect ratios of Au nanorods varying from 2 to 5 both in the simulation and experimental results. The simulation results are in agreement with experimental ones.     

Designing analysis of the polarization beam splitter in two communication bands based on a gold-filled dual-core photonic crystal fiber

We design a novel kind of polarization beam splitter based on a gold-filled dual-core photonic crystal fiber （DC-PCF）. Owing to filling with two gold wires in this DC-PCF, its coupling characteristics can be changed greatly by the second-order surface plasmon polariton （SPP） and the resonant coupling between the surface plasmon modes and the fiber-core guided modes can enhance the directional power transfer in the two fiber-cores. Numerical results by using the finite element method show the extinction ratio at the wavethlengths of 1.327 μm and 1.55 μm can reach -58 dB and -60 dB and the bandwidths as the extinction ratio better than -12 dB are about 54 nm and 47 nm, respectively. Compared with the gold-unfilled DC-PCF, a 1.746-mm-long gold-filled DC-PCF is better applied to the polarization beam splitter in the two communication bands of λ = 1.327 μm and 1.55 μm.     

Deep-ultraviolet surface plasmon resonance of Al and Al_(core)/Al_2O_(3shell) nanosphere dimers for surface-enhanced spectroscopy

The localized surface plasmon resonance properties of Al and Alcore/Al2O3 shell nanosphere dimers with Al and Al core nanosphere radii of 20 nm and Al2O3 shell of 2 nm in the deep-ultraviolet region have been studied using the finite difference time domain method. The extinction spectra and the electric field distribution profiles of the two dimers for various gap distances between two individual nanospheres are compared with those of the corresponding monomers to reveal the extent of plasmon coupling. It is found that with the interparticle distance decreasing, a strong plasmon coupling between two Al or Alcore/Al2O3 shell nanospheres is observed accompanied by a significant red shift in the extinction spectra at the parallel polarization direction of the incident light related to the dimer axis, while for the case of the perpendicular polarization direction, a weak plasmon coupling arises characterized by a slight blue shift in the extinction spectra. The electric field distribution profiles show that benefiting from the dielectric Al2O3 shell, the gap distance of Alcore/Al2O3 shell nanosphere dimers can be tailored to < 1 nm scale and results in a very high electric field enhancement. The estimated surface-enhanced Raman scattering enhancement factors suggests that the Alcore/Al2O3 shell nanosphere dimers with the gap of < 1 nm gave rise to an enhancement as high as 8.1 × 107 for interparticle gap = 0.5 nm. Our studies reveal that the Alcore/Al2O3 shell nanosphere dimers may be promising substrates for surface-enhanced spectroscopy in the deep-ultraviolet region.     

Fiber optical parametric oscillator based on photonic crystal fiber pumped with all-normal-dispersion mode-locked Yb:fiber laser

We demonstrate a cost effective, linearly tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a home-made photonic crystal fiber pumped with a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser, providing linely tuning ranges from 1018 nm to 1038 nm for the idler wavelength and from 1097 nm to 1117 nm for the signal wavelength by tuning the pump wavelength and the cavity length. In order to obtain the desired fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength around 1060 rim, eight sam- ples of photonic crystal fibers with gradually changed structural parameters are fabricated for the reason that it is difficult to accurately customize the structural dimensions during fabrication. We verify the usability of the fabricated fiber experimen- tally via optical parametric generation and conclude a successful procedure of design, fabirication, and verification. A seed source of home-made all-normal-dispersion mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 38.57 ps pulsewidth around the 1064 nm wavelength is used to pump the fiber optical parametric oscillator. The wide picosecond pulse pump laser enables a larger walk-off tolerance between the pump light and the oscillating light as well as a longer photonic crystal fiber of 20 m superior to the femtosecond pulse lasers, resulting in a larger parametric amplification and a lower threshold pump power of 15.8 dBm of the fiber optical parametric oscillator.     

基于表面等离子体共振原理的空芯光纤传感器

设计了一种基于表面等离子体共振原理,使用空芯光纤作为光波导、外表面镀金属膜的光学材料圆柱体作为探头的新型折射率传感器。通过建立光学模型进行分析,在理论上推导出了这种传感器的传输光谱损耗公式,并针对该传感器在不同的光纤长度、探头材料、检测物质折射率等参数设置下的检测性能进行了分析,获得了各种参数对其性能的影响。由于该传感器可针对不同折射率的检测物质灵活地更换合适探头材料,相对于传统的表面等离子体共振光纤传感器,在易用性和性价比等方面具有更好的应用价值。     

Investigation on Transmission Properties of Terahertz Wave Through Semiconductor Aperture

The transmission properties of terahertz （THz） wave passing through semiconductor aperture have been investigated. The dispersion relationship for surface plasmon polariton （SPP） at different temperatures has been numerically calculated. The results show that the dispersion relationship increases with the increasing of frequency and the decreasing of temperature, the thickness of slab has to be taken into consideration because of the large skin depth for semiconductor slab. In addition, the propagation constant increases with the increasing of frequency and the decreasing of temperature.     

Systematical analysis of mode-locked fiber lasers using single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorbers

The output characteristics of the Er-doped mode-locked fiber laser using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber are investigated theoretically with a nonlinear Schrtidinger equation and a saturable absorption equation using realistic parameters. Stable self-starting mode-locking pulses are achieved under net normal, net zero, and net anomalous cavity group velocity dispersion （GVD） respectively. A spectrum with a flat top is obtained from the net normal cavity GVD laser while a spectrum with Kelly side-bands is obtained from the net anomalous cavity GVD laser. The characteristics of the pulse duration changing with cavity GVD and modulation depth of the single-walled carbon nanotubes are discussed. The characteristics of the mode-locking pulses from net normal, net zero, and net anomalous cavity GVD mode-locked fiber lasers are compared. These systematical results are useful for designing mode-locked fiber lasers with saturable absorbers made by different kinds of carbon nano-materials.     

Switching and Fano resonance via exciton–plasmon interaction

We fnrther study theoretically the properties of switching and Fano resonance in a hybrid nanosystem consisting of two quantum dots （QDs） and a metal nanowire via exciton-plasmon interaction. The transmission of the single plasmon can be switched on or off in a wide-frequency region by adjusting the transition frequencies of the QDs and the phase of the propagating plasmon. Specifically, the dynamical mechanism of Fano-type transmission is further revealed and analyzed in detail.     

High conversion efficiency,high power density Q-switched fiber laser

An acoustic-optic Q-switched all-fiber laser With a high-repetition-rate, a short pulse width, a wide spectrum, and a high conversion efficiency is experimentally demonstrated. In the laser configuration, a （1＋1）x 1 side-pumping coupler is introduced to perform backward pumping, and a 10/130%tm Yb fiber is adopted. The acoustic-optic component operates in the first direction, achieving a Q-switched pulse with a repetition rate adjustable in the range of 20 kHz-80 kHz. Under a repetition rate of 20 kHz and a pump power of 6.76 W, the fiber laser obtains a highly efficient and stable pulse output, with an average power of 4.3 W, a pulse width of 56 ns, a peak power of 3.83 kW, and a power density of 1.39x 101~ W/cm2. Particularly, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of the laser reaches as high as 64%. Another feature of the pulsed laser is that the high reflection mirror reflects the pump light as well, which brings the secondary absorption of the pump power into the gain fiber.     

Numerical study of a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor based on circular-lattice holey fiber

A new design of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor employing circular-lattice holey fiber to achieve high-sensitivity detection is proposed. The sensing performance of the proposed sensor is numerically investigated and the results indicate that our proposed SPR sensor can be applied to the near-mid infrared detection. Moreover, the maximum wavelength sensitivity of our proposed sensor can reach as high as 1.76×10⁴ nm/refractive index unit (RIU) and the maximum wavelength interrogation resolution can be up to 5.68×10^-6 RIU when the refractive index (RI) of analyte lies in (1.31, 1.36). Thanks to its excellent sensing performance, our proposed SPR sensor will have great potential applications for biological analytes detection, food safety control, bio-molecules detection and so on.     

Sensitivity enhancement for a multimode fiber sensor with an axisymmetric metal grating layer

This paper proposes a novel design for a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber sensor with an axisymmetric sub-wavelength metal grating layer. The relationship between the sensor performance (the sensitivity S and the quality factor Q of the SPR dip) and the characteristic parameters are investigated. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed sensor can achieve a maximum sensitivity of 13,000 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) for a refractive index range from 1.3 to 1.4.     

基于全相位滤波技术的光纤表面等离子体共振传感解调算法

基于生物样品检测对折射率传感的迫切需求,构建一种全光纤表面等离子体共振(surface plasmon resonance,SPR)系统,并针对其设计了基于全相位滤波技术的SPR特征波长传感解调算法.基于系统仿真,理论计算了光纤SPR传感器的折射率传感灵敏度.采用全相位滤波技术提取光纤SPR传感器透射光谱的特征波长,理论推导了全相位滤波器的解析表达式.实验结果表明,使用本算法的光纤SPR传感器折射率传感灵敏度为1640.4 nm/RIU,折射率检测的分辨率是7.36×10~(-4)RIU,与传统方法相比,有效提高了系统的检测精度和抗光源扰动性能,降低了实验成本.     

Systematic study on visible light collimation nanostructured slits in the metal surface

We present a systematic experimental investigation on visible light collimation by a nanostructured slit flanked with a pair of periodic array of grooves in gold thin film. A wide variety of aspects are considered, such as the polarization state, the transport path of incident light, the groove-groove spacing, the groove width and depth. Our results clearly show that the relationship between the collimation wavelength and the periodicity of the slit-groove structure accords well with the surface plasmon dispersion model proposed by previous researchers. Furthermore, the surface plasmon wave phase retardation effect induced by the surface structure is also verified via the measurement for samples with different groove widths and depths. These results indicate that the detailed geometry of the groove structure has obvious impacts on the collimation effect and the angular distribution of the diffraction light in the subwavelength plasmonic system.     

Numerical analysis of a photonic crystal fiber based on two polarized modes for biosensing applications

This paper presents a theoretical study on a photonic crystal fiber plasmonic refractive index biosensor. The proposed photonic crystal fiber sensor introduces the concept of simultaneous detection with the linearly polarized and radially polarized modes because the sensing performance of the sensor based on both modes is relatively high, which will be useful for selecting the modes to make the detection accurately. The sharp single resonant peaks of the linearly polarized mode and radially polarized mode, are stronger and more sensitive to the variation of analyte refractive index than that of any other polarized mode in this kind of photonic crystal fiber. For linearly polarized mode and radially polarized mode, the maximum sensitivities of 10448.5nm per refractive index unit and 8230.7nm per refractive index unit can be obtained, as well as 949.8 and 791.4 for figure of merits in the sensing range of 1.33-1.45, respectively. Compared with the conventional Au-metalized surface plasmon resonance sensors, our device is better and can be applied as a biosensor.     

基于银纳米线的类熊猫型微结构光纤传感器

设计了基于银纳米线等离子体共振效应的大孔径微流通道的类熊猫型微结构光纤传感器,采用全矢量有限元法对该传感器进行了数值研究,讨论了待测液折射率等参数对光纤传感器的损耗和灵敏度的影响。结果表明:随着待测液折射率和银纳米线直径的增大,损耗和光谱峰值λpeak都将增大;并且当银纳米线的直径增加到一定程度时,损耗和灵敏度都会呈现多峰值现象。最后取银纳米线直径d=150 nm,得到最大幅度灵敏度为910 dB/RIU,最大光谱灵敏度为1 400 nm/RIU。     

A fiber-array probe technique for measuring the viscosity of a substance under shock compression

A fiber-array probe is designed to measure the damping behavior of a small perturbed shock wave in an opaque substance, by which the effective viscosity of substance under the condition of high temperature and high pressure can be constrained according to the flyer-impact technique. It shows that the measurement precision of the shock arrival time by using this technique is within 2 ns. To easily compare with the results given by electrical pin technique, the newly developed method is used to investigate the effective viscosity of aluminum （Al）. The shear viscosity coefficient of A1 is determined to be 1700 Pa.s at 71 GPa with a strain rate of 3.6× 10^6 s-1, which is in good agreement with the results of other methods. The advantage of the new technique over the electrical pin one is that it is applicable for studying the non-conductive substances.     

基于双峰谐振效应的镀金属长周期光纤光栅液体浓度传感器

利用长周期光纤光栅(LPFG)中的双峰谐振效应,结合表面等离子体共振(SPR)传感器的高灵敏度,提出了一种新型镀金属光纤光栅液体浓度传感器.采用双包层结构模型和耦合模理论,分析r镀金属长周期光纤光栅双峰效应的谐振特性,环境折射率的传感特性以及金属膜厚对双峰LPFG灵敏度的影响.实验上制作了具有双峰效应的镀银膜长周期光纤...     

基于光纤SPR光谱分析的水质矿化度检测研究

从溶液离子影响表面等离子体共振(SPR)光谱特征的角度,分析讨论了光纤SPR光谱对水溶液离子成分检测的灵敏特征,基于此并应用于以矿化度为代表的水质检测中。研究通过对不同离子状态的电解质溶液(NaCl,KCl,CaCl₂,MgCl₂,Na₂CO₃,MgSO₄和ZnSO₄)和非电解质溶液(蔗糖、丙三醇、葡萄糖)下的光纤SPR光谱分析,得到水环境的杂质离子含量对SPR光谱的影响规律,进而实现了水质矿化度的检测。研究同时给出了光纤SPR光谱法与电导率分析法在八种不同水样的检测对比分析,光纤SPR光谱法拥有高灵敏度、快速响应、抗电磁干扰等优点,对光纤SPR技术在水质检测领域的应用打下良好的基础。     

Refractive index sensor based on high-order surface plasmon resonance in gold nanofilm coated photonic crystal fiber

We propose a novel kind of wide-range refractive index optical sensor based on photonic crystal fiber(PCF) covered with nano-ring gold film.The refractive index sensing performance of the PCF sensor is analyzed and simulated by the finite element method(FEM).The refractive index liquid is infiltrated into the cladding air hole of the PCF.By comparing the sensing performance of two kinds of photonic crystal fiber structures, a wide range and high sensitivity structure is optimized.The surface plasmon resonance(SPR) excitation material is chose as gold, and large gold nanorings are embedded around the first cladding air hole of the PCF.The higher order surface plasmon modes are generated in this designed optical fiber structure.The resonance coupling between the fundamental mode and the 5 th order surface plasmon polariton(SPP)modes is excited when the phase matching condition is matched.Therefore, the 3 rd loss peaks appear obvious red-shift with the increase of the analyte refractive index, which shows a remarkable polynomial fitting law.The fitnesses of two structures are 0.99 and 0.98, respectively.When the range of refractive indices is from 1.40 to 1.43, the two kinds of sensors have high linear sensitivities of 1604 nm/RIU and 3978 nm/RIU, respectively.