Symmetry-broken square silicon patches for ultra-narrowband light absorption

Perfect Absorption and Reflection Modulation Based on Asymmetric Slot-Assisted Gratings without Mirrors

As a perfect graphene absorber without any external mirrors, we proposed asymmetric slot-assisted grating structures supporting two degenerate resonant modes of the guided-mode resonances (GMR) and the quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BIC). The GMR mode functions as an internal mirror in conjunction with the background scattering, while the quasi-BIC, which is responsible for perfect graphene absorption, stems from the horizontal symmetry breaking by an asymmetric slot. By properly shifting the slot center from the grating center, the leakage rate of quasi-BIC can be controlled in such a way as to satisfy the critical coupling condition. We provide a comprehensive study on the coupling mechanism of two degenerate resonant modes for a one-port system mimicking the resonance. We also numerically demonstrated that our proposed grating structures show an excellent reflection-type modulation performance at optical wavelength ranges when doped double-layer graphene is applied. Due to the perfect absorption at the OFF state, a high modulation depth of ~50 dB can be achieved via a small Fermi level variation of ~0.05 eV. To obtain the lower insertion loss at the ON state, the higher Fermi level is required to decrease the graphene absorption coefficient.

Polarization and angular insensitive bendable metamaterial absorber for UV to NIR range

Broadband absorbers are required for solar energy harvesting because they efficiently absorb the incident photon in the wide-ranging solar spectrum. To ensure high absorption of photons, metamaterial absorbers (MMAs) have been a growing area of interest in recent years. In this article, an MMA is proposed using a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) structure (Ni–SiO₂–Ni) that shows a near-unity broadband absorption of wavelengths from 300 to 1600 nm, with a 95.77% average absorption and a peak absorption of 99.999% at 772.82 nm. The MMA is polarization insensitive as well as wide incident angle stable. Analysis of the effects of mechanical bending on the absorption of the proposed structure shows that absorption holds satisfactory values at different degrees of mechanical loading. The suggested MMA unit cell structure was computationally simulated using the Finite Integration Technique (FIT) and verified using the Finite Element Method (FEM). To analyze the feasibility of the proposed MMA as a solar cell, it is investigated with the universal AM 1.5 solar spectrum characteristics. Besides solar energy harvesting, the proposed MMA unit cell may be employed in a variety of diverse optical applications, including sensors, detectors, and imaging.

Integrated plasmonic biosensor on a vertical cavity surface emitting laser platform

Plasmonic devices can modulate light beyond the diffraction limit and thus have unique advantages in realizing an ultracompact feature size. However, in most cases, external light coupling systems are needed, resulting in a prohibitively bulky footprint. In this paper, we propose an integrated plasmonic biosensor on a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) platform. The plasmonic resonant wavelength of the nanohole array was designed to match (detune) with the emission peak wavelength of the VCSEL before (after) binding the molecules, thus the refractive index that represents the concentration of the molecule could be measured by monitoring the light output intensity. It shows that high contrast with relative intensity difference of 98.8% can be achieved for molecular detection at conventional concentrations. The size of the device chip could be the same as a VCSEL chip with regular specification of hundreds of micrometers in length and width. These results suggest that the proposed integrated sensor device offers great potential in realistic applications.

High-quality-factor dual-band Fano resonances induced by dual bound states in the continuum using a planar nanohole slab

In photonics, it is essential to achieve high-quality (Q)-factor resonances to improve optical devices' performances. Herein, we demonstrate that high-Q-factor dual-band Fano resonances can be achieved by using a planar nanohole slab (PNS) based on the excitation of dual bound states in the continuum (BICs). By shrinking or expanding the tetramerized holes of the superlattice of the PNS, two symmetry-protected BICs can be induced to dual-band Fano resonances and their locations as well as their Q-factors can be flexibly tuned. Physical mechanisms for the dual-band Fano resonances can be interpreted as the resonant couplings between the electric toroidal dipoles or the magnetic toroidal dipoles based on the far-field multiple decompositions and the near-field distributions of the superlattice. The dual-band Fano resonances of the PNS possess polarization-independent feature, and they can be survived even when the geometric parameters of the PNS are significantly altered, making them more suitable for potential applications.

High performance for refractive index sensors via symmetry-protected guided mode resonance

The symmetry breaking in a typical dielectric GMR-grating structure allows the coupling of the incident wave with the so-called Symmetry-Protected Modes (SPM). In this present work, the excitation conditions of such particular modes are investigated. A parametric study including the grating dimensions is carried out to exploit them for a blood refractive index sensing with higher Sensitivity (S) and Figure Of Merit (FOM). To our knowledge, the performances obtained by FDTD calculations (Q = 2.1 × 10⁴, S = 657 nm/RIU and FOM ≃ ~9 112 RIU^-1) and FMM calculations (Q = 3 × 10⁶, S = 656 nm/RIU and FOM ≃ ~1.64 × 10⁶ RIU^-1) are the highest level reached.

Fringe double for self-mixing interference based on the narrow transmission spectrum mapping

In this work, a novel fringe double scheme with a Fabry-Pérot (F-P) cavity is proposed for self-mixing interferometry based on the narrow transmission spectrum mapping. While the laser beam with self-mixing interference (SMI) propagates through the F-P cavity with the narrow transmission spectrum, the SMI fringe doubles as the optical frequency modulation caused by SMI sweeps the peak of the transmission spectrum of the F-P cavity completely. The doubled SMI signal is very suitable for displacement reconstruction with fringe counting and velocity monitoring with joint time-frequency analysis, since it inherits the merits of the transmission spectrum of the F-P cavity (sharp, neat, and stable). This method has the potential to simplify signal processing and improve the resolution of SMI measurement systems.

Cascaded Nanorod Arrays for Ultrabroadband, Omnidirectional and Polarization-Insensitive Absorption

An ultrabroadband, omnidirectional, and polarization-insensitive absorber based on cascaded nanorod arrays (CNAs) is numerically demonstrated, and an average absorptivity of 98.2% with a relative absorption bandwidth (RAB) of 149.8% can be achieved in the 0.38–2.65 μm wavelength range. The proposed CNA-based absorber requires only several pairs of multilayers to achieve excellent absorption performance. More significantly, the physical mechanism for this intriguing ultrabroadband absorption results from the synergistic effect of localized surface plasmon (LSP) and plasmonic resonant cavity (PRC) modes, which is fundamentally different from the tapered metal/dielectric multilayer-based absorbers associated with the slow-light mode. We investigated the absorption properties of the CNA-based metasurface by using the impedance theory, which indicates that the impedance of the structure matches well with the impedance of the free space from the visible to near-infrared wavelength range. In addition, the absorption properties of the CNA-based metasurface are robust to the variation of the structural parameters and the metal/dielectric materials, and ultrabroadband absorption performance can be maintained within 0–60° for both TM and TE modes.