Light-induced photoluminescence enhancement in chiral CdSe quantum dot films.

Chiral quantum dots (QDs) are promising materials applied in many areas, such as chiral molecular recognition and spin selective filter for charge transport, and can be prepared by facile ligand exchange approaches. However, ligand exchange leads to an increase in surface defects and reduces the efficiencies of radiative recombination and charge transport, which restricts further applications. Here, we investigate the light-induced photoluminescence (PL) enhancement in chiral L- and D-cysteine CdSe QD thin films, providing a strategy to increase the PL. The PL intensity of chiral CdSe QD films can be significantly enhanced over 100 times by continuous UV laser irradiation, indicating a strong passivation of surface defects upon laser irradiation. From the comparative measurements of the PL intensity evolutions in vacuum, dry oxygen, air, and humid nitrogen atmospheres, we conclude that the mechanism of PL enhancement is photo-induced surface passivation with the assistance of water molecules.

Anomalous Laser-Fluence Dependence of Electron Spin Excitation in CdS Colloidal Quantum Dots: Surface Effects.

Electron spin dynamics in CdS quantum dots (QDs) with hole acceptor 1-octanethiol organic molecules are investigated by time-resolved ellipticity spectroscopy. An anomalous dependence of laser fluences on electron spin excitation for the first time is reported. Increasing the laser fluence, the electron spin is switched from one direction to an antiparallel direction (spin direction switching, SDS) when adding enough 1-octanethiol hole acceptors in an air atmosphere. The analysis shows that the electron spin direction changes from heavy hole excitation defined to spin-orbit split hole excitation defined. In as-grown CdS QDs with native ligands, laser-fluence-dependent SDS phenomena are absent. Electron wave function spread into 1-octanethiol molecules is demonstrated to be important for the presence of SDS phenomena. The finding here thus reveals the importance of surface conditions on electron spin excitation processes in semiconductor QDs and that the surface can be used as an important factor to manipulate the spin.

Methods for Obtaining One Single Larmor Frequency, Either v1 or v2, in the Coherent Spin Dynamics of Colloidal Quantum Dots.

The coexistence of two spin components with different Larmor frequencies in colloidal CdSe and CdS quantum dots (QDs) leads to the entanglement of spin signals, complicating the analysis of dynamic processes and hampering practical applications. Here, we explored several methods, including varying the types of hole acceptors, air or anaerobic atmosphere and laser repetition rates, in order to facilitate the obtention of one single Larmor frequency in the coherent spin dynamics using time-resolved ellipticity spectroscopy at room temperature. In an air or nitrogen atmosphere, manipulating the photocharging processes by applying different types of hole acceptors, e.g., Li[Et3BH] and 1-octanethiol (OT), can lead to pure spin components with one single Larmor frequency. For as-grown QDs, low laser repetition rates favor the generation of the higher Larmor frequency spin component individually, while the lower Larmor frequency spin component can be enhanced by increasing the laser repetition rates. We hope that the explored methods can inspire further investigations of spin dynamics and related photophysical processes in colloidal nanostructures.

Extremely High-Quality Periodic Structures on ITO Film Efficiently Fabricated by Femtosecond Pulse Train Output from a Frequency-Doubled Fabry-Perot Cavity.

This study developed a novel frequency-doubled Fabry-Perot cavity method based on a femtosecond laser of 1030 nm, 190 fs, 1 mJ, and 1 kHz. The time interval (60-1000 ps) and attenuation ratio (0.5-0.9) between adjacent sub-pulses of the 515 nm pulse train were able to be easily adjusted, while the efficiency was up to 50% and remained unchanged. Extremely high-quality low-spatial-frequency LIPSS (LSFL) was efficiently fabricated on an indium tin oxide (ITO) film using a pulse train with a time interval of 150 ps and attenuation ratio of 0.9 focused with a cylindrical lens. Compared with the LSFL induced by the primary Gaussian pulse, the uniformity of the LSFL period was enhanced from 481 ± 41 nm to 435 ± 8 nm, the divergence of structural orientation angle was reduced from 15.6° to 3.7°, and the depth was enhanced from 74.21 ± 14.35 nm to 150.6 ± 8.63 nm. The average line edge roughness and line height roughness were only 7.34 nm and 2.06 nm, respectively. The depths and roughness values were close to or exceeded those of resist lines made by the interference lithography. Compared with the common Fabry-Perot cavity, the laser energy efficiency of the pulse trains and manufacturing efficiency were enhanced by factors of 19 and 25. A very colorful "lotus" pattern with a size of 30×28 mm2 was demonstrated, which was covered with high-quality LSFLs fabricated by a pulse train with optimized laser parameters. Pulse trains can efficiently enhance and prolong the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, inhibit deposition particles, depress ablation residual heat and thermal shock waves, and eliminate high-spatial-frequency LIPSS formed on LSFL, therefore, producing extremely high-quality LSFL on ITO films.

Laser polarization-controlled photoreduction of samarium ions in sodium aluminoborate glass.

The valence state conversion of lanthanide ions induced by femtosecond laser fields has attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in areas like high-density optical storage. However, the physical mechanisms involved in valence state conversions still remain unclear. Here, we report the first experimental study of controlling the reduction of trivalent samarium ions to divalent ones in sodium aluminoborate glass by varying the polarization status of the 800 nm femtosecond laser field. As the laser field is varied from linear to circular polarization, the reduction efficiency can be greatly decreased by about fifty percent. This polarization-dependent reduction behavior is found to directly correlate with the nonresonant two-photon 4f-4f absorption probability of the trivalent samarium ions in both experiment and theory. Multiphoton excited charge transfer between oxygen and samarium is considered to be responsible for the photoreduction. Our work demonstrates a controllable and effective way in tuning the valence state conversion efficiency and sheds light on the underlying mechanisms.

Surpassing the resolution limitation of structured illumination microscopy by an untrained neural network.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM), as a flexible tool, has been widely applied to observing subcellular dynamics in live cells. It is noted, however, that SIM still encounters a problem with theoretical resolution limitation being only twice over wide-field microscopy, where imaging of finer biological structures and dynamics are significantly constrained. To surpass the resolution limitation of SIM, we developed an image postprocessing method to further improve the lateral resolution of SIM by an untrained neural network, i.e., deep resolution-enhanced SIM (DRE-SIM). DRE-SIM can further extend the spatial frequency components of SIM by employing the implicit priors based on the neural network without training datasets. The further super-resolution capability of DRE-SIM is verified by theoretical simulations as well as experimental measurements. Our experimental results show that DRE-SIM can achieve the resolution enhancement by a factor of about 1.4 compared with conventional SIM. Given the advantages of improving the lateral resolution while keeping the imaging speed, DRE-SIM will have a wide range of applications in biomedical imaging, especially when high-speed imaging mechanisms are integrated into the conventional SIM system.

Regular Periodic Surface Structures on Indium Tin Oxide Film Efficiently Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing with a Cylindrical Lens.

Regular laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) were efficiently fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) films by femtosecond laser direct writing with a cylindrical lens. It was found that randomly distributed nanoparticles and high spatial frequency LIPSSs (HSFL) formed on the surface after a small number of cumulative incident laser pulses per spot, and regular low spatial frequency LIPSSs (LSFL) appeared when more laser pulses accumulated. The mechanism of the transition was studied by real-time absorptance measurement and theoretical simulation. Results show that the interference between incident laser and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited by random surface scatterers facilitates the formation of prototype LSFLs, which in turn enhances light absorption and SPP excitation following laser pulses. The effects of scanning velocity and laser fluence on LSFL quality were discussed in detail. Moreover, large-area extremely regular LSFL with a diameter of 30 mm were efficiently fabricated on an ITO film by femtosecond laser direct writing with the cylindrical lens. The fabricated LSFLs on the ITO film demonstrate vivid structural color. During LSFL processing, the decrease of ITO film thickness leads to the increase of near-infrared optical transmittance.

High-speed super-resolution imaging with compressive imaging-based structured illumination microscopy.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been widely applied to investigating fine structures of biological samples by breaking the optical diffraction limitation. So far, video-rate imaging has been obtained in SIM, but the imaging speed was still limited due to the reconstruction of a super-solution image through multi-sampling, which hindered the applications in high-speed biomedical imaging. To overcome this limitation, here we develop compressive imaging-based structured illumination microscopy (CISIM) by synergizing SIM and compressive sensing (CS). Compared with conventional SIM, CISIM can greatly improve the super-resolution imaging speed by extracting multiple super-resolution images from one compressed image. Based on CISIM, we successfully reconstruct the super-resolution images in biological dynamics, and analyze the effect factors of image reconstruction quality, which verify the feasibility of CISIM. CISIM paves a way for high-speed super-resolution imaging, which may bring technological breakthroughs and significant applications in biomedical imaging.

Coherent Spin Dynamics of Localized Electrons in Monolayer MoS2.

Compared with itinerant electrons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, localized electrons exhibit coherent spin precession in transverse magnetic fields B and usually have longer spin relaxation times. Here, we uncover the intrinsic spin dephasing processes of localized electrons whose mechanism remains unclear. Electron spin coherence dynamics are studied by time-resolved Faraday rotation spectroscopy in monolayer MoS2, where four subensembles of localized electrons are found with different g factor values and inhomogeneous broadening. The spin dephasing rates of all four subensembles include a linearly B-dependent part due to g-factor inhomogeneity and a B-independent part dominated by electron-nuclear hyperfine interaction and/or anisotropic exchange interaction. The hyperfine-induced spin dephasing time is ∼30-40 ns, and the anisotropic exchange-induced spin dephasing time is on the order of subnanoseconds. The findings give insight into the coherent spin dynamics of localized electrons in monolayers and the interaction between the electron spin and its environment.

Hyperfine-Induced Electron-Spin Dephasing in Negatively Charged Colloidal Quantum Dots: A Survey of Size Dependence.

The electron spin relaxation processes are complicated in semiconductor quantum dots. Different spin relaxation mechanisms may result in an increased or decreased spin relaxation rate with the size. The information on size-dependent spin dynamics helps to clarify and better understand the underlying spin relaxation processes. We investigate the size dependence of the electron spin dynamics in negatively photocharged CdSe and CdS colloidal quantum dots by time-resolved ellipticity spectroscopy. It is revealed that the electron spin dephasings of photodoped electron in zero or weak magnetic fields are dominated by the electron-nuclear hyperfine interaction for all measured samples. The hyperfine-induced electron spin dephasing time is ∼1-2 ns at room temperature and decreases with decreasing the size D. In addition to a size-dependent dephasing time that is directly proportional to D3/2, our measurements also show a size-independent time component, likely due to the laser-induced nuclear spin ordering.

Hole-Acceptor-Manipulated Electron Spin Dynamics in CdSe Colloidal Quantum Dots.

Electron spin dynamics in CdSe quantum dots with hole acceptors are investigated by time-resolved ellipticity spectroscopy. Two types of hole acceptors, Li[Et3BH] and 1-octanethiol, result in distinctly different electron spin dynamics. The differences include electron g factors, spin dephasing/relaxation times, and mechanisms. In CdSe quantum dots with Li[Et3BH], the electron spin dephasing and relaxation are dominated by electron-nuclear hyperfine interactions in zero and weak magnetic fields. In contrast, hyperfine interactions, electron carrier lifetimes, and exchange interactions between electrons and holes or surface dangling bond spins control the electron spin dynamics in CdSe quantum dots with 1-octanethiol. Inhomogeneous dephasing limits the spin coherence time in larger transverse magnetic fields for both hole acceptor cases, but with distinct different g-factor inhomogeneity. These findings manifest that surface conditions play an important role in the spin dynamics and that thereby the surface and its surroundings can be exploited to control the spin in colloidal nanostructures.

Surface birefringence of regular periodic surface structures produced on glass coated with an indium tin oxide film using a low-fluence femtosecond laser through a cylindrical lens.

Large-area regular laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) with a birefringence effect were efficiently produced on a glass surface coated with an indium tin oxide (ITO) film, through irradiation by a femtosecond laser (800 nm, 50 fs, 3 mJ, 1 kHz) focused with a cylindrical lens. The laser fluence of 0.44 J/cm2 on the coated glass was only one-tenth of that on bare glass, which significantly reduced the thermal effect. Moreover, regular LIPSSs with a period as short as 100 nm could be produced efficiently. The retardance of the fabricated LIPSSs was measured to be up to 44 nm, which is eight times that of LIPSSs fabricated on bare glass. The mechanisms of such a large difference of retardance were studied by measuring the nanostructures and the concentration of In3+ ions on the cross section of nano-corrugated surface layer on bare glass and ITO-coated glass.

Hyperspectrally Compressed Ultrafast Photography.

The spatial, temporal, and spectral information in optical imaging play a crucial role in exploring the unknown world and unencrypting natural mysteries. However, the existing optical imaging techniques can only acquire the spatiotemporal or spatiospectral information of the object with the single-shot method. Here, we develop a hyperspectrally compressed ultrafast photography (HCUP) that can simultaneously record the spatial, temporal, and spectral information of the object. In our HCUP, the spatial resolution is 1.26 lp/mm in the horizontal direction and 1.41 lp/mm in the vertical direction, the temporal frame interval is 2 ps, and the spectral frame interval is 1.72 nm. Moreover, HCUP operates with receive-only and single-shot modes, and therefore it overcomes the technical limitation of active illumination and can measure the nonrepetitive or irreversible transient events. Using our HCUP, we successfully measure the spatiotemporal-spatiospectral intensity evolution of the chirped picosecond laser pulse and the photoluminescence dynamics. This Letter extends the optical imaging from three- to four-dimensional information, which has an important scientific significance in both fundamental research and applied science.

Ultrafast dynamics of the thin surface plasma layer and the periodic ripples formation on GaP crystal irradiated by a single femtosecond laser pulse.

Ultrafast dynamic of thin surface plasma layer plays a crucial role in the formation of periodic surface ripples after laser pulse irradiation. Using the pump-probe imaging technique, a complete scenario of the periodic ripples formation on a GaP surface is demonstrated after being irradiated by single femtosecond laser pulse. The ripples firstly emerge at delay time of several tens of picoseconds, and disappear completely at several hundreds of picoseconds, resulting in a transient overheating solid state ablation crater. It's interesting that new ripples appear and gradually become deep and clear after hundreds of picoseconds. A part of these ripples remain after the ablation crater is solidified. The period of the remained ripples is measured and approximately equal to the periods of the two transient ripples. The thin surface plasma model with multi-layer is introduced to study the formation of periodic ripples. The dynamics of the carrier excitation, carrier and lattice temperature, transient dielectric constant, and other factors are obtained by the two-temperature model and the Drude model. The results show that the periods of electric field distributions at different depths of the plasma layer are the same. The formation of the two transient ripples and the remained ripples are all related to the periodic energy deposition due to the SPP excitation at the air-plasma interface.

Bright near-surface silicon vacancy centers in diamond fabricated by femtosecond laser ablation.

We report the generation of single negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV-) color centers by focusing a femtosecond (fs) laser on top of a high-purity diamond coated with a layer of Si nanoball. Under the interaction of a high-intensity fs laser, Si atoms were ionized and implanted into the diamond, accompanied with the creation of vacancies. After annealing at 850°C in vacuum for 1 h, the photoluminescence spectra of bright spots around the created crater presented a typical strong zero-phonon line at around 737 nm of SiV- centers. Bright single SiV- color centers could be observed with a maximum saturating counting rate of 300×103 counts/s. We explain the formation mechanism of SiV- centers in diamond via a Coulomb explosion model. The results demonstrate that fs laser ablation can be utilized as a very promising tool to conveniently fabricate single bright SiV- centers in diamond.

Long-Lived Negative Photocharging in Colloidal CdSe Quantum Dots Revealed by Coherent Electron Spin Precession.

Photoinduced charging in CdSe colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is investigated by time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy that is sensitive to electron spin polarization. This technique monitors the coherent spin dynamics of optically oriented electrons precessing around an external magnetic field. By addition of 1-octanethiol to the CdSe QD solution in toluene, an extremely long-lived negative photocharging is detected that lives up to 1 month in an N2 atmosphere and hours in an air atmosphere at room temperature. 1-Octanethiol not only acts as a hole acceptor but also results in a reduction of the oxygen-induced photo-oxidation in CdSe QDs, allowing air-stable negative photocharging. Two types of negative photocharging states with different spin precession frequencies and very different lifetimes are identified. These findings have important implications for understanding the photophysical processes in colloidal nanostructures.

Origin of Two Larmor Frequencies in the Coherent Spin Dynamics of Colloidal CdSe Quantum Dots Revealed by Controlled Charging.

Coherent spin dynamics in colloidal CdSe quantum dots (QDs) typically show two spin components with different Larmor frequencies, whose origin is an open question. We exploit the photocharging approach to identify their origin and find that surface states play a key role in the appearance of the spin signals. By controlling the photocharging with electron or hole acceptors, we show that the specific spin component can be enhanced by the choice of acceptor type. In core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs, the spin signals are significantly weaker. Our results exclude the neutral exciton as the spin origin and suggest that both Larmor frequencies are related to the coherent spin precession of electrons in photocharged QDs. The lower frequency is due to the electron confined in the middle of the QD, and the higher frequency to the electron additionally localized in the vicinity of the surface.

Ultrafast imaging on the formation of periodic ripples on a Si surface with a prefabricated nanogroove induced by a single femtosecond laser pulse.

This paper reports the ultrafast imaging on the formation of periodic surface ripples induced by a single 800 nm, 50 fs laser pulse. The evolution process is observed on a Si surface with a prefabricated nanogroove. The ripples emerge very quickly, only 3 ps after the laser pulse with a fluence of 0.18 J/cm2 irradiating on the surface, and last for several hundreds of picoseconds. The ultrafast dynamics of laser-matter interaction, such as free carrier excitation, carrier and lattice heating, surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitation, etc, are studied theoretically. The theoretical and experimental results support that the periodic ripples are caused by the periodic energy deposition due to SPP excitation. The emerge time could identify the surface melting causing the formation of periodic ripples, and exclude the other thermal effects, for example, hydrodynamics.

Theoretical study on narrow Fano resonance of nanocrescent for the label-free detection of single molecules and single nanoparticles.

This paper reports a narrow Fano resonance of 3D nanocrescent and its application in the label-free detection of single molecules. The Fano resonance depends not only on the gap size but also on the height. The Fano resonance originates from the interference between the quadrupolar mode supported by the horizontal crescent and the dipolar mode along the nanotip. When the height of 3D nanocrescent is 30 nm, the width of Fano resonance is as narrow as 10 nm. The narrow linewidth is caused by the strong narrow resonant absorption coming from the dipolar mode of nanotip overlapping with the quadrupolar mode of nanocrescent, where the absorption spectra are calculated under a horizontal incident light. The narrow Fano resonance is highly sensitive to a single nanoparticle trapped by the nanocrescent. The wavelength shift increases linearly with the refractive index with the relation of Δλ = 22.10n - 28.80, and increases with the size of trapped nanoparticle following a relation of Δλ = 0.826 × r 1.672. These results indicate that if a protein nanoparticle with radius of 2.5 nm is trapped by the nanocrescent, the shift is as large as 4.03 nm.

A low lasing threshold and widely tunable spaser based on two dark surface plasmons.

We theoretically demonstrate a low threshold and widely tunable spaser based on a plasmonic nanostructure consisting of two sets of disk-rings (TSDR). The TSDR nanostructure supports two dark surface plasmons (SPs), which are excited simultaneously by two bright SPs at Fano dips. The two dark SPs support lower effective mode volume, higher quality factor and higher Purcell factors. When the dark SPs serve as the pumping and lasing mode of a spaser, the spaser has a lower lasing threshold, a higher pump absorption efficiency and a lower threshold absorbed pump power than the spaser based on a bright SP. In addition, the lasing and pumping wavelengths of the spaser proposed in this article can each be tuned over a very wide wavelength range. Our results should be significant for the development of spasers.