Unidirectional coupled chiral fiber grating.

We investigate a unidirectional coupled chiral fiber grating (UCFG) with both helical refractive index (RI) and loss modulation. The two modulations form a π/2 phase difference in the fiber cross-sectional azimuth angle, which "breaks" the mode coupled reciprocity of the forward and backward propagation. The forward propagation fundamental mode coupling is forbidden, while the backward propagation fundamental mode is coupled to the vortex mode. A simulation model based on the beam propagation method (BPM) is utilized to confirm the unidirectional coupling. Using the coupled mode analysis, we find that the key to the coupling difference lies in the non-Hermitian coupling matrix. In addition, the UCFG design involving mixed modulation is also discussed. The UCFG demonstrates its potential as a passive vortex beam generator, filter, and detector, with a transmittance difference of up to 30 dB between the coupled and uncoupled vortex modes.

Dynamically tunable multifunctional terahertz absorber based on hybrid vanadium dioxide and graphene metamaterials.

In this work, in pursuit of a multifunctional device with a simple structure, high absorption rate, and excellent bandwidth, a tunable broadband terahertz (THz) absorber based on vanadium dioxide (V O 2) and graphene is proposed. Due to the phase transition of V O 2 and the electrically tunable properties of graphene, the structure realizes single broadband and dual-band absorption characteristics. When graphene is in the insulating state (E f=0e V) and V O 2 is in the metallic state, the developed system has more than 90% absorption and a wide absorption band from 1.36 to 5.48 THz. By adjusting the V O 2 conductivity, the bandwidth absorption can be dynamically varied from 23% to more than 90%, which makes it a perfect broadband absorber. When graphene is in the metallic state (E f=1e V), V O 2 is in the insulating state, and the designed device behaves as a tunable and perfect dual-band absorber, where the absorptivity of the dual-band spectrum can be continuously adjusted by varying the Fermi energy level of graphene. In addition, both the broad absorption spectrum and the dual-band absorption spectrum maintain strong polarization-independent properties and operate well over a wide incidence angle, and the designed system may provide new avenues for the development of terahertz and other frequency-domain tunable devices.

Effects of three plant growth-promoting bacterial symbiosis with ryegrass for remediation of Cd, Pb, and Zn soil in a mining area.

The quality of soil containing heavy metals (HMs) around nonferrous metal mining areas is often not favorable for plant growth. Three types of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR)-assisted ryegrass were examined here to treat Cd, Pb, and Zn contaminated soil collected from a nonferrous metal smelting facility. The effects of PGPR-assisted plants on soil quality, plant growth, and the migration and transformation of HMs were evaluated. Results showed that inter-root inoculation of PGPR to ryegrass increased soil redox potential, urease, sucrase and acid phosphatase activities, microbial calorimetry, and bioavailable P, Si, and K content. Inoculation with PGPR also increased aboveground parts and root length, P, Si, and K contents, and antioxidant enzyme activities. The most significant effect was that the simultaneous inoculation of all three PGPRs increased the ryegrass extraction (%) of Cd (59.04-79.02), Pb (105.56-157.13), and Zn (27.71-40.79), compared to CK control (without fungi). Correspondingly, the inter-root soil contents (%) of total Cd (39.94-57.52), Pb (37.59-42.17), and Zn (34.05-37.28) were decreased compared to the CK1 control (without fungi and plants), whereas their bioavailability was increased. Results suggest that PGPR can improve soil quality in mining areas, promote plant growth, transform the fraction of HMs in soil, and increase the extraction of Cd, Pb, and Zn by ryegrass. PGPR is a promising microbe-assisted phytoremediation strategy that can promote the re-greening of vegetation in the mining area while remediating HMs pollution.

Separating radial and azimuthal polarizations of circular Airy vortex beam via uniaxial crystal.

Since Ciattoni A. et al. found that a particular circularly polarized beam propagating along the optical axis in a uniaxial crystal can generate a vortex with a reversed circular polarization, numerous studies of spin-orbit coupling in this polarization conversion process have been carried out. In this paper, from another perspective rather than the circular polarization conversion, for the first time we find that radial- and azimuthal-polarization components will be separated and finally focus on two separated focus points when circular Airy vortex beams propagate in a uniaxial crystal. Both the separation of the radial- and azimuthal-polarization components in positive and negative uniaxial crystals are investigated, and the physical mechanism of this phenomenon is explained in details. Moreover, the influences of the crystal length and birefringence on the separation of the radial- and azimuthal-polarization components are also discussed. Our results could offer deeper understanding of the propagation of light beam in uniaxial crystal and facilitate the flexible applications of circular Airy vortex beams.

Controlling the spin Hall effect of grafted vortex beams propagating in uniaxial crystal.

Though numerous studies of spin-orbit interaction (SOI) of light beams propagating along the optic axis of uniaxial crystals have been carried out, in previous studies, the initial input beams have cylindrical symmetry. In this case, the total system preserves cylindrical symmetry so that the output light after passing through the uniaxial crystal doesn't exhibit spin dependent symmetry breaking. Therefore, no spin Hall effect (SHE) occurs. In this paper, we investigate the SOI of a kind of novel structured light beam, grafted vortex beam (GVB) in uniaxial crystal. The cylindrical symmetry of the system is broken by the spatial phase structure of the GVB. As a result, a SHE determined by the spatial phase structure emerges. It is found that the SHE and evolution of the local angular momentum are controllable both by changing the grafted topological charge of the GVB and by employing linear electro-optic effect of the uniaxial crystal. This can open a new perspective to investigate the SHE of light beams in uniaxial crystals via constructing and manipulating the spatial structure of the input beams artificially, hence offers novel regulation capabilities of spin photon.

Fiber-integrated catenary ring-array metasurfaces for beam shaping.

Catenary is referred to as "the real mathematical and mechanical form" in the architectural field. Because of the unique phase control characteristic of the catenary, it has excellent ability in optical manipulation. Here, we propose an optical waveform conversion device based on optical fiber-integrated catenary ring-array metasurfaces. The device consists of a cascade structure of a single-mode fiber (SMF) and a graded-index fiber (GIF). At the GIF end, two kinds of catenary ring-array metasurfaces are introduced to realize beam shaping from Gaussian beam (GB) to Bessel beam. The device can selectively generate a focused or non-diffracting Bessel beam by changing the circular polarization state of the incident light. It is worth noting that under some parameters of the device, the output Bessel beam can break through the diffraction limit, which has potential applications in the fields of optical imaging, optical communication, and optical trapping.

Transformation mechanism of methylphosphonate to methane by Burkholderia sp: Insight from multi-labeled water isotope probing and transcriptomic.

Methylphosphonate (MPn), has been identified as a likely source of methane in aerobic ocean and may be responsible for the "ocean methane paradox", that is oversaturation of dissolved methane in oxic sea waters. However, the mechanism underlying the cleavage of C-P bonds during microbial degradation is not well understood. Using multi-labeled water isotope probing (MLWIP) and transcriptome analysis, we investigated the phosphate oxygen isotope systematics and mechanisms of microbial-mediated degradation of MPn in this study. In the aerobic culture containing MPn as the only phosphorus source, there was a significant release of inorganic phosphate (149.4 µmol/L) and free methane (268.3 mg/L). The oxygen isotopic composition of inorganic phosphorus (δ18OP) of accumulated released phosphate was 4.50‰, 23.96‰, and 40.88‰, respectively, in the corresponding 18O-labeled waters of -10.3‰, 9.9‰, and 30.6‰, and the slope obtained in plots of δ18OP versus the oxygen isotopic composition of water (δ18OW) was 0.89. Consequently, 89% of the oxygen atoms (Os) in phosphate (PO4) were exchanged with 18O-labeled waters in the medium, while the rest were exchanged with intracellular metabolic water. It has been confirmed that the C-P bond cleavage of MPn occurs in the cell with both ambient and metabolic water participation. Moreover, phn gene clusters play significant roles to cleave the C-P bond of MPn for Burkholderia sp. HQL1813, in which phnJ, phnM and phnI genes are significantly up-regulated during MPn decomposition to methane. In conclusion, the aerobic biotransformation of MPn to free methane by Burkholderia sp. HQL1813 has been elucidated, providing new insights into the mechanism that bio-cleaves C-P bonds to produce methane aerobically in aqueous environments for representative phosphonates.

Ultra-compact on-chip meta-waveguide phase modulator based on split ring magnetic resonance.

With the development of photonic integration technology, meta-waveguides have become a new research hotspot. They have broken through the theoretical diffraction limit by virtue of the strong electromagnetic manipulation ability of the metasurface and the strong electromagnetic field limitation and guidance ability of the waveguide. However, the reported meta-waveguides lack research on dynamic modulation. Therefore, we analyze the modulation effect of the metasurface on the optical field in the waveguide and design an ultra-compact on-chip meta-waveguide phase modulator using split ring magnetic resonance. It has a very short modulation length of only 3.65 µm, wide modulation bandwidth of 116.8 GHz, and low energy consumption of 263.49 fJ/bit. By optimizing the structure, the energy consumption can be further reduced to 90.69 fJ/bit. Meta-waveguides provide a promising method for the design of integrated photonic devices.

SPP excitation and coupling mechanism based on micro/nano fibers.

A hot trend in the development of optoelectronic devices is how to use the principle of surface plasmon resonance to enhance the performance of integrated photonics devices and achieve miniaturization. This paper proposes an accompanying waveguide coupling structure of micro/nano fibers, which consists of two parallel-placed micro/nano fibers (MNFs) coated with a silver film in the waist region and infused with a refractive index matching oil. In the overlapping region, there exists a segment of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) coupling area. The excitation and coupling characteristics of SPPs are studied through numerical simulation. Optimal coupling enhancement configuration is obtained by studying variables such as spacing distance, coupling length, and metal film thickness. A comparison is made with the SPP intensity of a single MNF, showing a 220% increase in electric field intensity, demonstrating its excellent coupling effect. By using this coupling structure, exploration of SPPs excitation and coupling mechanisms is enhanced, and structures resembling interferometric devices can be designed, providing new insights for high-performance miniaturized devices.

Simulation study of a temperature-calibrated double-sided polished optical fiber SPR refractive index sensor.

The temperature of the environment directly affects the accuracy of refractive index (RI) measurement. Therefore, we propose a double-sided polished surface plasmon resonance (SPR) RI fiber sensor, which is available for simultaneous measurement of the RI and temperature in real time. The proposed sensor uses single-mode fiber as a special double-sided polishing structure. The double-sided polishing regions are coated with a gold-silver hybrid film; one side is additionally coated with graphene layers to increase detection sensitivity, and the other side is coated with polydimethylsiloxane on the metal layer for temperature sensing. The simulation result shows that in the range from 1.33 to 1.35, RI sensitivity reaches as high as 2600 nm/RIU. In the range from 15°C to 85°C, temperature sensitivity reaches as high as -3.5n m/∘ C. The full width at half maximum is 65 nm. Compared with previous studies, the sensitivity is slightly improved, and an excellent temperature compensation effect can be achieved. It is suitable for high-precision measurement of the environment and biochemical aspects.

Simultaneous Measurement of Refractive Index and Temperature Based on SMF-HCF-FCF-HCF-SMF Fiber Structure.

In this research, we proposed and experimentally verified a compact all-fiber sensor that can measure refractive index (RI) and temperature simultaneously. Two segments of hollow-core fiber (HCF) are connected to the two ends of the four-core fiber (FCF) as a beam splitter and a coupler, and then spliced with two sections of single-mode fibers (lead-in and lead-out SMF), respectively. The two hollow-core fibers can excite the higher-order modes of the four-core fiber and recouple the core modes and higher-order modes into the outgoing single-mode fiber, thereby forming inter-mode interference. The different response sensitivities of two interference dips to RI and temperature manifest that the proposed structure can achieve simultaneous measurement. From the experimental results, it can be seen that the maximum sensitivity of the sensor to RI and temperature is 275.30 nm/RIU and 94.4 pm/°C, respectively. When the wavelength resolution is 0.02 nm, the RI and temperature resolutions of the sensor are 7.74 × 10-5 RIU and 0.335 °C. The proposed dual-parameter optical sensor has the advantages of high sensitivities, good repeatability, simple fabrication, and structure. In addition, it has potential application value in multi-parameter simultaneous measurement.

Simulation Study of High Sensitivity Fiber SPR Temperature Sensor with Liquid Filling.

In this paper, a high sensitivity fiber temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance is designed and studied. In the simulation, the single mode fiber is polished to remove most of the cladding, and then gold and silver films are added. Finally, it is embedded in the heat shrinkable tube filled with a thermo-optic coefficient liquid for curing. The numerical simulation results show that the sensing characteristics are sensitive to the remaining cladding thickness of the fiber, the thickness of the gold film and the thickness of the silver film. When the thermo-optic coefficient of the filling liquid is -2.8 × 10-4/°C, the thickness of the gold film, the thickness of the silver film and the thickness of the remaining cladding of the fiber are 30 nm, 20 nm and 1 µm, respectively. The sensitivity of the sensor designed in this paper can reach -6 nm/°C; this result is slightly higher than that of similar research in recent years. It will have a promising application prospect in flexible wearable temperature sensors, smart cities and other fields.

On-chip continuous position control of phase singularities in nanoscale.

In this paper, continuous position control of plasmonic phase singularities on a metal-air interface is achieved based on the misaligned coupling between the optical axis of vortex beam and nano ring plasmonic lens. The formula of surface plasmon polaritons field distribution in this case is derived. The offset distance and direction between the optical axis of the vortex beam and the center of the nano ring is used to control the distance and the angular distribution of the phase singularities in nanoscale, respectively. This can promote the accurate positioning of phase singularities in practical applications and provide a deeper understanding of the misaligned coupling between vortex beams and nano ring plasmonic lens.

Tunable circular dichroism based on graphene-metal split ring resonators.

The chiroptical response of the chiral metasurface can be characterized by circular dichroism, which is defined as the absorption difference between left-handed circularly polarized incidence and right-handed circularly incidence. It can be applied in biology, chemistry, optoelectronics, etc. Here, we propose a dynamically tunable chiral metasurface structure, which is composed of two metal split-ring resonators and a graphene layer embedded in dielectric. The structure reflects right-handed circularly polarized waves and absorbs left-handed circularly polarized waves under normal incidence. The overall unit structural parameters of the chiral metasurface were discussed and analyzed, and the circular dichroism was 0.85 at 1.181 THz. Additionally, the digital imaging function can be realized based on the chiral metasurface structure, and the resolution of terahertz digital imaging can be dynamically tuned by changing the Fermi level of graphene. The proposed structure has potential applications in realizing tunable dynamic imaging and other communication fields.

Dual-color meta-image display with a silver nanopolarizer based metasurface.

Plasmonic metallic nanostructures with anisotropic design have unusual polarization-selective characteristic which can be utilized to build nanopolarizers at the nanoscale. Herein, we propose a dual-color image display platform by reconfiguring two types of silver nanoblocks in a single-celled metasurface. Governed by Malus's law, the two types of silver nanoblocks both acting as nanopolarizers with different orientations can continuously modulate the intensity of incident linearly polarized red and green light pixel-by-pixel, respectively. As a result, an ultra-compact, high-resolution, and continuous-greyscale dual-color image can be recorded right at the surface of the meta-device. We demonstrate the dual-color Malus metasurface by successfully encoding and decoding a red-green continuously-grayscale image into a metasurface sample. The experimentally captured meta-image with high-fidelity and resolution as high as 63500 dots per inch (dpi) has verified our proposal. With the advantages such as continuous grayscale modulation, ultrathin, high stability and high density, the proposed dual-color encoded metasurfaces can be readily used in ultra-compact image displays, high-end anti-counterfeiting, high-density optical information storage and information encryption, etc.

Highly Sensitive Graphene-Au Coated Plasmon Resonance PCF Sensor.

This paper presents a graphene-Au coated photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensor in the visible regime. Designing a side-polish D-shaped plane over the PCF's defect of the periodic air holes can effectively enhance the evanescent field. Graphene on gold can enhance the sensor's sensitivity because it can stably adsorb biomolecules and increase the propagation constant of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP). Using the finite element method (FEM), we demonstrated that the sensing performance is greatly improved by optimizing the PCF's geometric structural parameter. The proposed PCF sensor exhibited high performance with a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 4200 nm/RIU, maximum amplitude sensitivity of 450 RIU-1, and refractive index resolution of 2.3 × 10-5 RIU in the sensing range 1.32-1.41. This research provides a potential application for the design a new generation of highly sensitive biosensors.

Spin-orbital coupling of quadratic-power-exponent-phase vortex beam propagating in a uniaxial crystal.

Recent studies have shown that quadratic-power-exponent-phase (QPEP) vortex and modified QPEP vortex have some novel properties and potential applications in optical manipulation, orbital angular momentum (OAM) communication, OAM multicasting and so on. In these applications, there may be potential need of processing these kinds of beams by using uniaxial crystals. In this paper, the analytical propagation equations of Gaussian QPEP vortex and modified QPEP vortex propagating in uniaxial crystals are derived and the evolution of the angular momentum via spin-orbital coupling during the propagation is investigated. This may be meaningful for guiding and promoting the applications of the QPEP vortex and modified QPEP vortex.

Polarization controllable generation of flat superimposed OAM states based on metasurface.

In this paper, two kind of metasurface-based flat orbital angular momentum (OAM) superposition-state generators are proposed, which can generate OAM superposition states possessing tens of OAM modes being evenly spaced by topological charge number 1. The power spectra of the generated OAM superposition states are flat. The power variation of the OAM modes of the OAM superposition states from one generator is less than 3 dB, and the power variation of the OAM modes of the OAM superposition states from the other one is less than 0.3 dB. By controlling the left-handed and right-handed circular polarization states of the incident light, the OAM spectra of the OAM superposition states generated in the two polarization cases are separated from each other, therefore, the proposed generators are light polarization controllable. In addition, the two generators can operate efficiently on a wide wavelength region ranging from 635nm to 730nm. Our work may have some potential applications, such as used for OAM multicasting, OAM based optical manipulation, or manufacturing integrated OAM-superposition-state generators and OAM modulation devices.

Displacement Sensor Based on a Small U-Shaped Single-Mode Fiber.

A simple structure and easily fabricated displacement sensor was proposed and demonstrated based on a bending-induced fiber interferometer. In the design, the fiber interferometer was formed only by bending the single-mode fiber into a small U-shape without splicing, tapering, or heating pre-processing, which effectively reduces the complexity of the fabrication process, greatly enhances the mechanical strength of the sensor, and lowers the cost in the displacement sensing applications. The displacement sensing performances for the sensor with different bending radii of 3.3 mm, 4.4 mm, 5.0 mm, and 6.3 mm were investigated. Experimental results showed that the sensor had a good linear response, and for the bending radii of 3.3, 4.4, 5.0, and 6.3 mm, the proposed sensors showed high sensitivities of 134.3, 105.1, 120.9, and 144.1 pm/µm, respectively.

Proposed phase plate for superimposed orbital angular momentum state generation.

In this letter, a quadratic phase plate (QPP) whose thickness increases quadratically with azimuthal angle φ is proposed. When a beam with initial topological charge m (m could be an arbitrary integer) is passed through the plate, quadratic phase modulation can be expected to expand the initial single orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode to a superimposed OAM state. The obtained multi-OAM state exhibits a comb-like OAM spectrum, which shows a flat region. The power variation of the OAM modes within the flat region is less than 3 dB, while the power for the OAM modes with charge numbers out of the flat region decays rapidly. Moreover, the number of OAM modes within the flat region can reach dozens. This may have potential applications in the field of communication, quantum information and optical manipulation, etc.