Thickness-dependent ultrafast charge-carrier dynamics and coherent acoustic phonon oscillations in mechanically exfoliated PdSe2 flakes.

Recently, palladium diselenide (PdSe2) has emerged as a promising material with potential applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices due to its intriguing electronic and optical properties. The performance of the device is strongly dependent on the charge-carrier dynamics and the related hot phonon behavior. Here, we investigate the photoexcited-carrier dynamics and coherent acoustic phonon (CAP) oscillations in mechanically exfoliated PdSe2 flakes with a thickness ranging from 10.6 nm to 54 nm using time-resolved non-degenerate pump-probe transient reflection (TR) spectroscopy. The results imply that the CAP frequency is thickness-dependent. Polarization-resolved transient reflection (PRTR) measurements reveal the isotropic charge-carrier relaxation dynamics and the CAP frequency in the 10.6 nm region. In addition, the deformation potential (DP) mechanism dominates the generation of the CAP. Moreover, a sound velocity of 6.78 × 103 m s-1 is extracted from the variation of the oscillation period with the flake thickness and the delay time of the acoustic echo. These results provide insight into the ultrafast optical coherent acoustic phonon and optoelectronic properties of PdSe2 and may open new possibilities for PdSe2 applications in THz-frequency mechanical resonators.

Laser Writable Multifunctional van der Waals Heterostructures.

Achieving multifunctional van der Waals nanoelectronic devices on one structure is essential for the integration of 2D materials; however, it involves complex architectural designs and manufacturing processes. Herein, a facile, fast, and versatile laser direct write micro/nanoprocessing to fabricate diode, NPN (PNP) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) simultaneously based on a pre-fabricated black phosphorus/molybdenum disulfide heterostructure is demonstrated. The PN junctions exhibit good diode rectification behavior. Due to different carrier concentrations of BP and MoS2 , the NPN BJT, with a narrower base width, renders better performance than the PNP BJT. Furthermore, the current gain can be modulated efficiently through laser writing tunable base width WB , which is consistent with the theoretical results. The maximum gain for NPN and PNP is found to be ≈41 (@WB ≈600 nm) and ≈12 (@WB ≈600 nm), respectively. In addition, this laser write processing technique also can be utilized to realize multifunctional WSe2 /MoS2 heterostructure device. The current work demonstrates a novel, cost-effective, and universal method to fabricate multifunctional nanoelectronic devices. The proposed approach exhibits promise for large-scale integrated circuits based on 2D heterostructures.

Two-photon absorption and non-resonant electronic nonlinearities of layered semiconductor TlGaS2.

The ultrafast nonlinear optical properties of bulk TlGaS2 crystal, a semiconductor with a layered structure, are studied by combining intensity dependent transmission, time-resolved transient absorption, and optical Kerr effect coupled to optical heterodyne detection. TlGaS2 demonstrates obvious two-photon absorption and electronic nonlinearities at 800 nm. The two-photon absorption coefficient and the nonlinear refractive index are determined to be of the order of 10-10 cm/W and 10-14 cm2/W, respectively. Furthermore, both the real and imaginary parts of the complex third-order susceptibility tensor elements are extracted. The large ultrafast optical nonlinearities make TlGaS2 a promising material for application in photonic techniques.

Microshell Arrays Enhanced Sensitivity in Detection of Specific Antibody for Reduced Graphene Oxide Optical Sensor.

Protein-protein interactions play an important role in the investigation of biomolecules. In this paper, we reported on the use of a reduced graphene oxide microshell (RGOM)-based optical biosensor for the determination of goat anti-rabbit IgG. The biosensor was prepared through a self-assembly of monolayers of monodisperse polystyrene microspheres, combined with a high-temperature reduction, in order to decorate the RGOM with rabbit IgG. The periodic microshells allowed a simpler functionalization and modification of RGOM with bioreceptor units, than reduced graphene oxide (RGO). With additional antibody-antigen binding, the RGOM-based biosensor achieved better real-time and label-free detection. The RGOM-based biosensor presented a more satisfactory response to goat anti-rabbit IgG than the RGO-based biosensor. This method is promising for immobilizing biomolecules on graphene surfaces and for the fabrication of biosensors with enhanced sensitivity.

Measurement of complex refractive index of turbid media by scanning focused refractive index.

We present the application of scanning focused refractive index microscopy in the complex refractive index measurement of turbid media. An extra standard scattering layer is placed in front of the detector to perform scattering transformation on the reflected light. The principle of the scattering transformation is elaborated theoretically. The influence of the sample scattering is deeply and effectively suppressed experimentally. As a proof of the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method, we demonstrate experimental data of 20% and 30% Intralipid solutions that are commonly used as phantom media for light propagation studies.

Reduced graphene oxide nanoshells for flexible and stretchable conductors.

Graphene has been extensively investigated for its use in flexible electronics, especially graphene synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). To enhance the flexibility of CVD graphene, wrinkles are often introduced. However, reports on the flexibility of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) films are few, because of their weak conductivity and, in particular, poor flexibility. To improve the flexibility of RGO, reduced graphene oxide nanoshells are fabricated, which combine self-assembled polystyrene nanosphere arrays and high-temperature thermal annealing processes. The resulting RGO films with nanoshells present a better resistance stabilization after stretching and bending the devices than RGO without nanoshells. The sustainability and performance advances demonstrated here are promising for the adoption of flexible electronics in a wide variety of future applications.

Effect of multiple scattering to optical forces on a sphere near an optical waveguide.

We have investigated the effect of multiple scattering to optical forces on a particle in the evanescent field produced by an optical waveguide. Considering the multiple scattering between the sphere and the waveguide, we extend the formalism based on transition matrix and reflection matrix to calculate the optical forces on a sphere near an optical waveguide. Numerical results show that the influence that multiple scattering has on the optical forces can't be ignored, especially when the structure resonance of the particle arises. Moreover, the effect of multiple scattering to optical forces is also studied in detail on the condition that the distance between the sphere and the waveguide is within the effective operating distance.

Tunable optofluidic microring laser based on a tapered hollow core microstructured optical fiber.

A tunable optofluidic microring dye laser within a tapered hollow core microstructured optical fiber was demonstrated. The fiber core was filled with a microfluidic gain medium plug and axially pumped by a nanosecond pulse laser at 532 nm. Strong radial emission and low-threshold lasing (16 nJ/pulse) were achieved. Lasing was achieved around the surface of the microfluidic plug. Laser emission was tuned by changing the liquid surface location along the tapered fiber. The possibility of developing a tunable laser within the tapered simplified hollow core microstructured optical fiber presents opportunities for developing liquid surface position sensors and biomedical analysis.

Making transient optical reflection of graphene polarization dependent.

The polarization dependence of transient optical reflection, induced by nonequilibrium carriers isotropically distributed in momentum space, of graphene on substrate is experimentally and theoretically investigated. It is found that this transient optical reflection could be made greatly polarization dependent by using oblique incidence for light, and the characteristic of this polarization dependence could be flexibly altered with incident angle and incident direction (from graphene to substrate, or from substrate to graphene). Our results suggest that through polarization of incident beam is an efficient way of manipulating graphene transient optical reflection.

Ultrasensitive flow sensing of a single cell using graphene-based optical sensors.

On the basis of the polarization-dependent absorption of graphene under total internal reflection, we designed a graphene-based optical refractive index sensor with high resolution of 1.7 × 10(-8) and sensitivity of 4.3 × 10(7) mV/RIU, as well as an extensive dynamic range. This highly sensitive graphene optical sensor enables label-free, live-cell, and highly accurate detection of a small quantity of cancer cells among normal cells at the single-cell level and the simultaneous detection and distinction of two cell lines without separation. It provides an accurate statistical distribution of normal and cancer cells with fewer cells. This facile and highly sensitive sensing refractive index may expand the practical applications of the biosensor.

Flexible graphene saturable absorber on two-layer structure for tunable mode-locked soliton fiber laser.

Using a two-layer structure consisting of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to support graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), we demonstrate a flexible integrated graphene saturable absorber (SA) on microfiber for passive mode-locked soliton fiber laser. This method can optimize the light-graphene interaction by using evanescent field in the integration structure. Moreover, the fiber laser with the in-line microfiber-to-graphene SA can realize the tunabilities of both the 3dB bandwidth of output optical spectrum and the pulse width of soliton. This tunable mode-locked soliton laser has potential applications in optical communication, optical microscopy, and so on.

Experimental observation of a giant Goos-Hänchen shift in graphene using a beam splitter scanning method.

A giant Goos-Hänchen (G-H) shift in graphene has been theoretically predicted by previous research. In this Letter, we present experimental measurements of the G-H shift in graphene, in a total internal reflection condition, using a new method we have named "the beam splitter scanning method." Our results show that a focused light source undergoes significant lateral shift when the polarization of incident light changes from transverse magnetic (TM) to transverse electric (TE) mode, indicating a large G-H shift in graphene that is polarization-dependent. We also observed that the difference in the G-H shift for TM versus TE modes (S(TM)-S(TE)) increases with increasing thickness of graphene material. A maximum difference (S(TM)-S(TE)) of 31.16 µm was observed, which is a significant result. Based on this research, the ability to engineer giant G-H shifts in graphene material has now been experimentally confirmed for the first time to the best of our knowledge. We expect that this result will lead to significant new and interesting applications of graphene in various types of optical sensors, and more.

Large tunable optical absorption of CVD graphene under total internal reflection by strain engineering.

We have developed a method to tune polarization-dependent optical absorption of large-scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene under total internal reflection (TIR) by strain engineering. Through control of the strain direction, the optical absorption of graphene for transverse magnetic or transverse electric waves can be separately tuned. Strain-induced modulation of the optical absorption has been theoretically expected when light is normally incident through graphene. Under TIR, however, we experimentally observed a significant increase in the strain-induced tunability of optical absorption for CVD graphene, with the modulation efficiency of optical absorption in monolayer graphene increasing by a factor of three times that for normal incidence. We conclude that the strain sensitivity of optical absorption of graphene under TIR offers significant potential for application in many areas such as ultra-thin optical devices and strain sensors.

Mode converter in metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguide designed by transformation optics.

A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide can support two plasmonic modes. Efficient conversion between the two modes can be achieved by reshaping of both phase and power density distributions of the guided mode. The converters are designed with the assistance of transformation optics. We propose two practical configurations for mode conversion, which only consist of homogeneous materials yielded from linear coordinate transformations. The functionalities of the converters are demonstrated by full wave simulations. Without consideration of transmission loss, conversion efficiency of as high as 95% can be realized.

Morphology-dependent resonance of the optical forces on Mie particles in an Airy beam.

Morphology-dependent resonance (MDR) of the optical forces for a particle illuminated by Airy beams is investigated with respect to its internal field distribution. We find the ring structures arising from the resonance transform significantly with the parametric evolution of Airy evanescent wave, and the interference of the internal waves have a great impact on the Q factor and the background of the resonant peak, but it's not proper for Airy transmitted wave. The multiple reflections of the evanescent wave between the particle and the interface are also investigated, which show significant impacts on the region where the energy concentrate in.

The effects of multiple scattering to optical forces on a sphere in an evanescent field.

In this paper we discuss the effects of multiple scattering to the optical forces on a particle by an evanescent field. We show that the iterative method to process the effects of the interaction between the particle and a plane surface is invalid when the radius of particle is large or when the structural resonance of the particle occurs. By using the generalized minimum residual method to solve the set of equations directly, the divergence appears in the iterative method can be removed completely. As an illustrative example, we discussed the effects of multiple scattering to optical forces on a particle in an evanescent field from an incident plane wave. The interpretations of numerical results are presented in detail.

Transient thermal effect, nonlinear refraction and nonlinear absorption properties of graphene oxide sheets in dispersion.

The nonlinear refraction (NLR) properties of graphene oxide (GO) in N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) was studied in nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond time regimes by Z-scan technique. Results show that the dispersion of GO in DMF exhibits negative NLR properties in nanosecond time regime, which is mainly attributed to transient thermal effect in the dispersion. The dispersion also exhibits negative NLR in picosecond and femtosecond time regimes, which are arising from sp(2)- hybridized carbon domains and sp(3)- hybridized matrix in GO sheets. To illustrate the relations between NLR and nonlinear absorption (NLA), NLA properties of the dispersion were also studied in nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond time regimes.

Optical limiting effect and ultrafast saturable absorption in a solid PMMA composite containing porphyrin-covalently functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

A versatile solid Poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) composite containing porphyrin-covalently functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs-TPP) was prepared through free radical polymerization without additional dispersion stabilizer. Using nanosecond, femtosecond pulse Z-scan and degenerate femtosecond pump-probe techniques, we studied the optical limiting effect, ultrafast saturable absorption and transient differential transmission of the composite. Results show that the solid composite exhibits weaker optical limiting effects than that of the suspension at 532 nm under nanosecond pulse, due to the absence of nonlinear scattering mechanism. The composite also shows ultrafast saturable absorption with a relaxation time about 190 fs at 800 nm under femtosecond pulse due to band-filling effect, comparably to the suspension. The versatile solid composite can be the candidate for uses in applications of ultrafast optical switching and mode-locking element or optical limiter for nanosecond pulse.

Nanostructure fabricated by nanosphere lithography assisted with O2 plasma treatment.

Nanosphere lithography is an efficient way to fabricate metallic nanostructures with large area. This paper presents the fabrication of metallic hexagonal nano-pyramid arrays by two dimensional nanospheres lithography assisted with O2 plasma treatment. By O2 plasma treatment, the gap and diameter of nanospheres can be modulated. After electron beam deposition, we can fabricate similar nanostructures with different pyramid gap distances. This method may be an easy way to modulate the geometric parameters of nanostructures.

Broadband sensory networks with locally stored responsivities for neuromorphic machine vision.

As the most promising candidates for the implementation of in-sensor computing, retinomorphic vision sensors can constitute built-in neural networks and directly implement multiply-and-accumulation operations using responsivities as the weights. However, existing retinomorphic vision sensors mainly use a sustained gate bias to maintain the responsivity due to its volatile nature. Here, we propose an ion-induced localized-field strategy to develop retinomorphic vision sensors with nonvolatile tunable responsivity in both positive and negative regimes and construct a broadband and reconfigurable sensory network with locally stored weights to implement in-sensor convolutional processing in spectral range of 400 to 1800 nanometers. In addition to in-sensor computing, this retinomorphic device can implement in-memory computing benefiting from the nonvolatile tunable conductance, and a complete neuromorphic visual system involving front-end in-sensor computing and back-end in-memory computing architectures has been constructed, executing supervised and unsupervised learning tasks as demonstrations. This work paves the way for the development of high-speed and low-power neuromorphic machine vision for time-critical and data-intensive applications.