Sub-terahertz silicon-based on-chip absorption spectroscopy using thin-film model for biological applications.

Spectroscopy in the sub-terahertz (sub-THz) range of frequencies has been utilized to study the picosecond dynamics and interaction of biomolecules. However, widely used free-space THz spectrometers are typically limited in their functionality due to low signal-to-noise ratio and complex setup. On-chip spectrometers can revolutionize THz spectroscopy allowing integration, compactness, and low-cost fabrication. In this paper, a low-loss silicon-based platform is proposed for on-chip sub-THz spectroscopy. Through functionalization of silicon chip and immobilization of bio-particles, we demonstrate the ability to characterize low-loss nano-scale biomolecules across the G-band (0.14-0.22 THz). We also introduce an electromagnetic thin-film model to account for the loading effect of the immobilized biomolecules, i.e. dehydrated streptavidin and immunoglobulin antibody, as two key molecules in the biosensing discipline. The proposed platform was fabricated using a single mask micro-fabrication process, and then measured by a vector network analyzer (VNA), which offers high dynamic range and high spectral resolution measurements. The proposed planar platform is general and paves the way towards low-loss, cost-effective and integrated sub-THz biosensors for the detection and characterization of biomolecules.

A machine learning based exploration of COVID-19 mortality risk.

Early prediction of patient mortality risks during a pandemic can decrease mortality by assuring efficient resource allocation and treatment planning. This study aimed to develop and compare prognosis prediction machine learning models based on invasive laboratory and noninvasive clinical and demographic data from patients' day of admission. Three Support Vector Machine (SVM) models were developed and compared using invasive, non-invasive, and both groups. The results suggested that non-invasive features could provide mortality predictions that are similar to the invasive and roughly on par with the joint model. Feature inspection results from SVM-RFE and sparsity analysis displayed that, compared with the invasive model, the non-invasive model can provide better performances with a fewer number of features, pointing to the presence of high predictive information contents in several non-invasive features, including SPO2, age, and cardiovascular disorders. Furthermore, while the invasive model was able to provide better mortality predictions for the imminent future, non-invasive features displayed better performance for more distant expiration intervals. Early mortality prediction using non-invasive models can give us insights as to where and with whom to intervene. Combined with novel technologies, such as wireless wearable devices, these models can create powerful frameworks for various medical assignments and patient triage.

Enhanced on-chip terahertz vibrational absorption spectroscopy using evanescent fields in silicon waveguide structures.

In this study, we demonstrate on-chip terahertz absorption spectroscopy using dielectric waveguide structures. The structures' evanescent fields interact with the sample material surrounding the waveguide, enabling the absorption signature of the material to be captured. The ability of fabricated terahertz dielectric waveguide structures, based on the newly developed silicon-BCB-quartz platform, to capture the fingerprint of α-lactose powder (as an example material) at 532 GHz is examined. Enhancement of the spectroscopy sensitivity through techniques such as tapering the waveguide, confining the field in a slot dielectric waveguide, and increasing the interaction length using a spiral-shaped waveguide are investigated experimentally. The proposed on-chip spectroscopy structures outperform conventional and state-of-the-art approaches in terms of sensitivity and compactness.

Non-Invasive Real-Time Monitoring of Glucose Level Using Novel Microwave Biosensor Based on Triple-Pole CSRR.

Planar microwave sensors are considered an attractive choice to noninvasively probe the dielectric attributes of biological tissues due to their low cost, simple fabrication, miniature scale, and minimum risk to human health. This paper develops and measures a novel microwave biosensor for non-invasive real-time monitoring of glucose level. The design comprises a rectangular plexiglass channel integrated on a triple-pole complementary split ring resonator (TP-CSRR). The proposed sensor operates in the centimeter-wave range 1-6 GHz and is manufactured using PCB on top of an FR4 dielectric substrate. The sensor elements are excited via a coupled microstrip transmission-line etched on the bottom side of the substrate. The integrated CSRR-based sensor is used as a near-field probe to non-invasively monitor the glucose level changes in the blood mimicking solutions of clinically relevant concentrations to Type-2 normal diabetes (70-120 mg/dL), by recording the frequency response of the harmonic reflection and transmission resonances. This indicates the sensor's capability of detecting small variations in the dielectric properties of the blood samples that are responsive to the electromagnetic fields. The proposed sensor is verified through practical measurements of the fabricated design. Experimental results obtained using a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) demonstrate a sensitivity performance of about 6.2 dB/(mg/ml) for the developed triple-pole sensor that significantly outperforms the conventional single-pole and other proposed sensors in the literature in terms of the resonance amplitude resolution.

Low-cost portable microwave sensor for non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose level: novel design utilizing a four-cell CSRR hexagonal configuration.

This article presents a novel design of portable planar microwave sensor for fast, accurate, and non-invasive monitoring of the blood glucose level as an effective technique for diabetes control and prevention. The proposed sensor design incorporates four cells of hexagonal-shaped complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs), arranged in a honey-cell configuration, and fabricated on a thin sheet of an FR4 dielectric substrate.The CSRR sensing elements are coupled via a planar microstrip-line to a radar board operating in the ISM band 2.4-2.5 GHz. The integrated sensor shows an impressive detection capability and a remarkable sensitivity of blood glucose levels (BGLs). The superior detection capability is attributed to the enhanced design of the CSRR sensing elements that expose the glucose samples to an intense interaction with the electromagnetic fields highly concentrated around the sensing region at the induced resonances. This feature enables the developed sensor to detect extremely delicate variations in the electromagnetic properties that characterize the varying-level glucose samples. The desired performance of the fabricated sensor is practically validated through in-vitro measurements using a convenient setup of Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) that records notable traces of frequency-shift responses when the sensor is loaded with samples of 70-120 mg/dL glucose concentrations. This is also demonstrated in the radar-driven prototype where the raw data collected at the radar receiving channel shows obvious patterns that reflect glucose-level variations. Furthermore, the differences in the sensor responses for tested glucose samples are quantified by applying the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) machine learning algorithm. The proposed sensor, beside its impressive detection capability of the diabetes-spectrum glucose levels, has several other favorable attributes including compact size, simple fabrication, affordable cost, non-ionizing nature, and minimum health risk or impact. Such attractive features promote the proposed sensor as a possible candidate for non-invasive glucose levels monitoring for diabetes as evidenced by the preliminary results from a proof-of-concept in-vivo experiment of tracking an individual's BGL by placing his fingertip onto the sensor. The presented system is a developmental platform towards radar-driven wearable continuous BGL monitors.

Experimental Characterization of the Ultrafast, Tunable and Broadband Optical Kerr Nonlinearity in Graphene.

Graphene's giant nonlinear optical response along with its integrability has made it a vaunted material for on-chip photonics. Despite a multitude of studies confirming its strong nonlinearity, there is a lack of reports examining the fundamental processes that govern the response. Addressing this gap in knowledge we analyse the role of experimental parameters by systematically measuring the near-infrared spectral dependence, the sub-picosecond temporal evolution and pulse-width dependence of the effective Kerr coefficient (n2,eff) of graphene in hundreds of femtosecond regime. The spectral dependence measured using the Z-scan technique is corroborated by a density matrix quantum theory formulation to extract a n2,eff ∝ λ2 dependence. The temporal evolution obtained using the time-resolved Z-scan measurement shows the nonlinearity peaking at zero delay time and relaxing on a time-scale of carrier relaxation. The dependence of the n2,eff on pulse duration is obtained by expanding the input pulse using a prism-pair set-up. Our results provide an avenue for controllable tunability of the nonlinear response in graphene, which is limited in silicon photonics.

Subcycle Terahertz Nonlinear Optics.

The nonlinear interaction of subcycle electromagnetic radiation with matter is the current frontier in ultrafast nonlinear optics and high-field physics. Here, we investigate nonlinear optical effects induced by intense, subcycle terahertz radiation in a doped semiconductor. We observe a truncation of the half-cycle terahertz pulse and an emission of high-frequency terahertz photons. We attribute our observations to the abrupt current drop caused by strong intervalley scattering effects. By adding an extra half-cycle terahertz pulse with opposite polarity, we monitor the evolution of the nonlinear carrier dynamics during a quasi-single-cycle pulse. Our results demonstrate the differences between nonlinear effects for subcycle and multicycle terahertz pulses. It also suggests a new approach to subcycle control of terahertz waveforms, and the generation of high-order terahertz harmonics could be realized by using multicycle pulses.

Freeform engineered disordered metalenses for super-resolution imaging and communication.

Effective transmission of information through scattering media has been of great importance in imaging systems and beneficial to high capacity wireless communication. Despite numerous attempts to achieve high-resolution sub-diffraction-limited imaging through employing the engineered structures such as the so-called metamaterials or utilizing techniques like time reversal methods, the proposed ideas suffer from the fundamental limitations for design and practical realization. In this paper, we investigate disorder-based engineered scattering structures and introduce a novel technique for achieving super-resolution based on designing and employing engineered all-dielectric medium. We show that disorder in the proposed design can be exploited to significantly modify the information content of scattered fields in the far-field region. Under the presence of the designed structures, using computational methods, signals associated with ultra sub-wavelength features of the illuminating sources can be enhanced and extracted from the far-field image. Not only can the presented approach lead to remarkable enhancement of resolution in such systems, but also orthogonal transmission channels are attainable when the closely-packed sources are excited properly. The latter provides a new scheme for encoding and multiplexing signals leading to the enhancement of information capacity in emerging information processing systems. The design procedure and physical constraints are studied and discussed.

Slot plasmonic waveguide based on doped-GaAs for terahertz deep-subwavelength applications.

A new plasmonic waveguide for deep-subwavelength field localization at the terahertz (THz) range of frequency is proposed. GaAs with optimum doping level is used as the plasmonic material. The waveguide structure is a narrow slot in a thin GaAs film on top of the quartz substrate. The waveguide characteristics are analyzed, and its dimensions are optimized to minimize the losses. It is shown that the mode size of the proposed waveguide is less than λ/16 by λ/16. The proposed plasmonic waveguide can be a platform for numerous THz plasmonic-based integrated devices, such as integrated sensors and imagers.

Label-free DNA sensing using millimeter-wave silicon WGM resonator.

A planar dielectric waveguide based structure for bio-sensing purpose is introduced. The proposed device is a silicon-based WGM disc resonator operating within the range of 75-110 GHz (W-band). The sensor is an integrated, miniaturized, low-cost, and easy-to-fabricate bio-sensor structure. The proposed sensor can be used for a number of DNA characterization tasks including Mutation in DNA oligonucleotide. Two types of DNAs, single strand and double strand DNAs, are successfully tested by our integrated sensor. The measurement repeatability and selectivity of the proposed sensor are examined through the different experimental lab-tests.

Colorimetric sensors using nano-patch surface plasmon resonators.

A two-dimensional array of gold nano-patches on a highly reflective mirror is proposed for refractive index sensing based on changes in the reflected colors. The grating on the mirror creates localized surface plasmon resonances resulting in a minimum in the visible reflectance spectra. The wavelength of the resonance can be tuned by changing the width of the nano-patches and is also dependent on the refractive index of the surrounding medium. The color variation due to change in the refractive index is measured and used to realize a simple low-cost sensor with a refractive index resolution better than 10⁻5 just using image processing. The efficacy of the proposed sensor is also demonstrated for surface sensing by depositing thin layers of silicon dioxide. The color difference due to the addition of a 3 nm thick layer of silicon dioxide is detectable by the naked eye and deposition thickness of 2 Šcan be resolved using image processing.

A hybrid analysis method for plasmonic enhanced terahertz photomixer sources.

A hybrid analysis of a continuous-wave terahertz photomixer source structure with plasmonic nano-grating electrodes is presented. Using the hybrid analysis, the enhancement of the optical power absorption due to the presence of the one-dimensional metallic nano-grating is investigated by defining an absorption enhancement factor. We show that the proposed absorption enhancement factor can be used as a design tool, whose maximization provides the optimum geometrical parameters of the nano-grating. Based on drift-diffusion model, the photocurrent enhancement due to the nano-grating electrodes is studied under three different bias configurations. Moreover, the dependence of the photocurrent on the physical parameters of the photomixer is analyzed.

Ultra-compact photonic crystal based polarization rotator.

An asymmetrically loaded photonic crystal based polarization rotator has been introduced, designed and simulated. The polarization rotator structure consists of a single defect line photonic crystal slab waveguide with asymmetrically etched upper layer. To continue the rotation from a given input polarization to the desired output polarization the upper layer is alternated on either side of the defect line, periodically. Coupled mode theory based on semi-vectorial modes and plane wave expansion methods are employed to design the polarization rotator structure around a particular frequency band of interest. The 3D-FDTD simulation results agree with the coupled mode analysis around the region of interest specified during the design. Complete polarization rotation is achieved over the propagation length of 12lambda. For this length, the coupling efficiency higher than 90% is achieved within the normalized frequency band of 0.258-0.262.

Rigorous formulation for electromagnetic plane-wave scattering from a general-shaped groove in a perfectly conducting plane.

Scattering of an obliquely incident plane wave by a general-shaped groove engraved on a perfectly conducting plane is rigorously solved. The scattered field is represented by a Fourier-integral representation. To analytically represent the fields in a general-shaped groove, the groove is divided into L number of layers. Fields are then expressed in each layer as summations of 2D spatial harmonic fields with unknown coefficients. Matching the boundary conditions between layers provides a linear set of equations connecting all the unknown harmonic coefficients. Judicious use of Fourier transform on the equations resulting from matching boundary conditions at the groove aperture provides a series representation of the scattered field in the spectral domain with unknown harmonic coefficients of the first layer in the groove. A stable solution is obtained by solving the complete system of equations with an adaptive choice for the number of modes in each layer.