Visible-Light Induced Sustainable Water Treatment Using Plasmo-Semiconductor Nanogap Bridge Array, PNA

Optical Penetration of Shape-Controlled Metallic Nanosensors across Membrane Barriers

Precise nanostructure geometry that enables the optical biomolecular delivery of nanosensors to the living intracellular environment is highly desirable for precision biological and clinical therapies. However, the optical delivery through membrane barriers utilizing nanosensors remains difficult due to a lack of design guidelines to avoid inherent conflict between optical force and photothermal heat generation in metallic nanosensors during the process. Here, we present a numerical study reporting significantly enhanced optical penetration of nanosensors by engineering nanostructure geometry with minimized photothermal heating generation for penetrating across membrane barriers. We show that by varying the nanosensor geometry, penetration depths can be maximized while heat generated during the penetration process can be minimized. We demonstrate the effect of lateral stress induced by an angularly rotating nanosensor on a membrane barrier by theoretical analysis. Furthermore, we show that by varying the nanosensor geometry, maximized local stress fields at the nanoparticle-membrane interface enhanced the optical penetration process by four-fold. Owing to the high efficiency and stability, we anticipate that precise optical penetration of nanosensors to specific intracellular locations will be beneficial for biological and therapeutic applications.

Intelligent Fusion Imaging Photonics for Real-Time Lighting Obstructions

Dynamic detection in challenging lighting environments is essential for advancing intelligent robots and autonomous vehicles. Traditional vision systems are prone to severe lighting conditions in which rapid increases or decreases in contrast or saturation obscures objects, resulting in a loss of visibility. By incorporating intelligent optimization of polarization into vision systems using the iNC (integrated nanoscopic correction), we introduce an intelligent real-time fusion algorithm to address challenging and changing lighting conditions. Through real-time iterative feedback, we rapidly select polarizations, which is difficult to achieve with traditional methods. Fusion images were also dynamically reconstructed using pixel-based weights calculated in the intelligent polarization selection process. We showed that fused images by intelligent polarization selection reduced the mean-square error by two orders of magnitude to uncover subtle features of occluded objects. Our intelligent real-time fusion algorithm also achieved two orders of magnitude increase in time performance without compromising image quality. We expect intelligent fusion imaging photonics to play increasingly vital roles in the fields of next generation intelligent robots and autonomous vehicles.

Solar-Driven Soil Remediation along with the Generation of Water Vapor and Electricity

As a renewable energy source, solar energy has become an important part of human energy use. However, facilities utilizing solar energy are often complex and technically difficult, and preparation equipment and materials are expensive, while these equipment and materials often cause new environmental pollution. Soil, which exists in large quantities on the earth’s surface, is an inexhaustible natural material with loose and stable properties. Due to the specificity of its composition and microscopic form, the soil has an inherent advantage as a medium for solar thermal and photovoltaic conversion. Here, we built an integrated solar energy utilization system, the Integrated Soil Utilization Module (ISUM), integrating multi-functions into one hybrid system, which enables solar-driven water vapor and electricity generation and soil remediation. The evaporation rate of the soil represented by the rocky land was 1.2 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ under 1-sun irradiation with evaporation induced voltage of 0.3 V. With only seven days of continuous exposure to sunlight, the removal of heavy metal ions from the soil reached 90%, while the pH was raised to near neutral. The combined application of readily available natural soil with solar energy not only demonstrates the potential of a soil for solar desalination and power generation, but in addition, solar-driven interfacial evaporation provides an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable method for purifying heavy metal and acid-contaminated soil.

Ultraprecision Imaging and Manipulation of Plasmonic Nanostructures by Integrated Nanoscopic Correction

Optical manipulation and imaging of nano-objects with nanometer precision is highly desirable for nanomaterial and biological studies due to inherent noninvasiveness. However, time constraints and current segregated experimental systems for nanoimaging and nanomanipulation limits real-time super-resolution imaging with spatially enhanced manipulation. Here, an integrated nanoscopic correction (iNC) method to enable multimodal nanomanipulation-nanoimaging is reported. The iNC consists of a multimodal voltage-tunable power modulator, polarization rotator, and polarizer. Using the iNC, plasmonic nano-objects which are below the diffraction limit and which can be distinguished by direct observation without post processing are demonstrated. Furthermore, such direct observations with enhanced nanometer spatial stability and millisecond high speed are shown. Precise trapping and rapid rotation of gold nanorods with the iNC are demonstrated successfully. With non-invasive post-processing free nanoimaging and nanomanipulation, it is anticipated that the iNC will make contributions in the nanomaterial and biological sciences requiring precision optics.