A metal-insulator-metal waveguide-based plasmonic refractive index sensor for the detection of nanoplastics in water.

A metal-insulator-metal waveguide-based square-ring resonator plasmonic refractive index sensor is designed and optimized for achieving high sensitivity. The sensitivity of the sensor critically depends on the physical dimension and the geometrical parameters of the resonator. Systematic studies on varying geometrical parameters of the resonator reveal that the sensitivity increases with the number of concentric square-rings. Moreover, the full-width-half-maxima of the resonance line is found to increase with the number of square rings. Importantly, variations in the coupling length affect the transmitted intensity as well as the full-width-half-maxima of the resonance spectra in a characteristic fashion. An initial exploration of the optimized sensor for nanoplastic detection for a range of volume fractions 0.15625-0.625% shows a systematic linear increase in the resonance wavelength with changing refractive index of the surrounding medium. This offers the possibility of ultrasensitive detection of extremely small change ( ∼ 0.00025 ) in the local refractive index as the signature of a minute level of plastic contamination. This was achieved by using an optimized sensor design with a sensitivity of 2700 nm/RIU and a full-width-half-maxima of 333 nm. Results presented in the paper demonstrate the considerable promise of the proposed plasmonic refractive index sensor towards nanoplastic detection.

Spin-Direction-Spin Coupling of Quasiguided Modes in Plasmonic Crystals.

We report an unusual spin-direction-spin coupling phenomenon of light using the leaky quasiguided modes of a waveguided plasmonic crystal. This is demonstrated as simultaneous input spin-dependent directional guiding of waves (spin-direction coupling) and wave-vector-dependent spin acquisition (direction-spin coupling) of the scattered light. These effects, manifested as the forward and the inverse spin Hall effect of light in the far field, and other accompanying spin-orbit interaction effects are observed and analyzed using a momentum (k) domain polarization Mueller matrix. Resonance-enabled enhancement of these effects is also demonstrated by utilizing the spectral Fano resonance of the hybridized modes. The fundamental origin and the unconventional manifestation of the spin-direction-spin coupling phenomenon from a relatively simple system, ability to probe and interpret the resulting spin-orbit phenomena in the far field through momentum-domain polarization analysis, and their regulated control in plasmonic-photonic crystals open up exciting avenues in spin-orbit-photonic research.

Natural weak value amplification in Fano resonance and giant Faraday rotation in magneto-plasmonic crystal.

The extraordinary concept of weak value amplification can be formulated within the realm of wave interference as nearly destructive interference between the eigenstates of the measuring observable. Here we report on a phenomenon of interferometric weak value amplification of small polarization rotation in Fano resonance that evolves completely naturally due to near destructive spectral domain interference between a continuum and a narrow resonance mode having slightly different polarization response. In order to elucidate this, we first experimentally demonstrate an interferometric weak value amplification concept by generating nearly destructive interference of two paths of an interferometer having slightly rotated linear polarization states of light. The weak value amplification of polarization rotation effect is manifested as dramatic changes in the polarization state of light, which acts as the pointer. We go on to demonstrate that the manifestation of natural interferometric weak value amplification is an important contributing factor to the observed giant Faraday rotation and ellipticity in waveguided magneto-plasmonic crystals exhibiting prominent Fano resonance. The natural weak value interpretation of the enhanced Faraday rotation in hybrid magneto-plasmonic systems enriches the existing understanding on its origin. This opens up a new paradigm of natural weak measurement for gaining fundamental insights and ensuing practical applications on various weak interaction effects in rich variety of wave phenomena that originate from fine interference effects.