Dirac Cones and Room Temperature Polariton Lasing Evidenced in an Organic Honeycomb Lattice

Artificial 1D and 2D lattices have emerged as a powerful platform for the emulation of lattice Hamiltonians, the fundamental study of collective many-body effects, and phenomena arising from non-trivial topology. Exciton-polaritons, bosonic part-light and part-matter quasiparticles, combine pronounced nonlinearities with the possibility of on-chip implementation. In this context, organic semiconductors embedded in microcavities have proven to be versatile candidates to study nonlinear many-body physics and bosonic condensation, and in contrast to most inorganic systems, they allow the use at ambient conditions since they host ultra-stable Frenkel excitons. A well-controlled, high-quality optical lattice is implemented that accommodates light-matter quasiparticles. The realized polariton graphene presents with excellent cavity quality factors, showing distinct signatures of Dirac cone and flatband dispersions as well as polariton lasing at room temperature. This is realized by filling coupled dielectric microcavities with the fluorescent protein mCherry. The emergence of a coherent polariton condensate at ambient conditions are demonstrated, taking advantage of coupling conditions as precise and controllable as in state-of-the-art inorganic semiconductor-based systems, without the limitations of e.g. lattice matching in epitaxial growth. This progress allows straightforward extension to more complex systems, such as the study of topological phenomena in 2D lattices including topological lasers and non-Hermitian optics.

Ultrafast Dynamics, Optical Nonlinearities, and Chemical Sensing Application of Free-Standing Porous Silicon-Based Optical Microcavities

The present work demonstrates the ultrafast carrier dynamics and third-order nonlinear optical properties of electrochemically fabricated free-standing porous silicon (FS-PSi)-based optical microcavities via femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) and single-beam Z-scan techniques, respectively. The TAS (pump: 400 nm, probe: 430-780 nm, ∼70 fs, 1 kHz) decay dynamics are dominated by the photoinduced absorption (PIA, lifetime range: 4.7-156 ps) as well as photoinduced bleaching (PIB, 4.3-324 ps) for the cavity mode (λc) and the band edges. A fascinating switching behavior from the PIB (-ve) to the PIA (+ve) has been observed in the cavity mode, which shows the potential in ultrafast switching applications. The third-order optical nonlinearities revealed an enhanced two-photon absorption coefficient (β) in the order of 10-10 mW-1 along with the nonlinear refractive index (n2) in the range of 10-17 m2 W-1. Furthermore, a real-time sensing application of such FS-PSi microcavities has been demonstrated for detecting organic solvents by simultaneously monitoring the kinetics in reflection and transmission mode.

Wearable Microneedle Patch for Transdermal Electrochemical Monitoring of Urea in Interstitial Fluid

Microneedle-based wearable electrochemical biosensors are the new frontier in personalized health monitoring and disease diagnostic devices that provide an alternative tool to traditional blood-based invasive techniques. Advancements in micro- and nanofabrication technologies enabled the fabrication of microneedles using different biomaterials and morphological features with the aim of overcoming existing challenges and enhancing sensing performance. In this work, we report a microneedle array featuring conductive recessed microcavities for monitoring urea levels in the interstitial fluid of the skin. Microcavities are small pockets on the tip of each microneedle that can accommodate the sensing layer, provide protection from delamination during skin insertion or removal, and position the sensing layer in a deep layer of the skin to reach the interstitial fluid. The wearable urea patch has shown to be highly sensitive and selective in monitoring urea, with a sensitivity of 2.5 mV mM-1 and a linear range of 3 to 18 mM making it suitable for monitoring urea levels in healthy individuals and patients. Our ex vivo experiments have shown that recessed microcavities can protect the sensing layer from delamination during skin insertion and monitor changing urea levels in interstitial fluid. This biocompatible platform provides alternative solutions to the critical issue of maintaining the performance of the biosensor upon skin insertion and holds great potential for advancing transdermal sensor technology.

Temperature Sensitivity Control of an Inkjet-Printed Optical Resonator on Pillar

We report a whispering gallery mode resonator on a pillar using inkjet printing combined with traditional microfabrication techniques. This approach enables several different polymers on the same chip for sensing applications. However, polymers inherently exhibit sensitivity to multiple stimuli. To mitigate temperature sensitivity, careful selection of design parameters is crucial. By precisely tuning the undercut-to-radius ratio of the resonator, a linear dependence in temperature sensitivity ranging from -41.5 pm/°C to 23.4 pm/°C, with a zero-crossing point at 47.6% is achieved. Consequently, it is feasible to fabricate sensing devices based on undercut microdroplets with minimal temperature sensitivity. The lowest measured temperature sensitivity obtained was 5.9 pm/°C, for a resonator with an undercut-to-radius ratio of 53%.

Nanophotonic Materials for Twisted-Light Manipulation

Twisted light, an unbounded set of helical spatial modes carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), offers not only fundamental new insights into structured light-matter interactions, but also a new degree of freedom to boost optical and quantum information capacity. However, current OAM experiments still rely on bulky, expensive, and slow-response diffractive or refractive optical elements, hindering today's OAM systems to be largely deployed. In the last decade, nanophotonics has transformed the photonic design and unveiled a diverse range of compact and multifunctional nanophotonic devices harnessing the generation and detection of OAM modes. Recent metasurface devices developed for OAM generation in both real and momentum space, presenting design principle and exemplary devices, are summarized. Moreover, recent development of whispering-gallery-mode-based passive and tunable microcavities, capable of extracting degenerate OAM modes for on-chip vortex emission and lasing, is summarized. In addition, the design principle of different plasmonic devices and photodetectors recently developed for on-chip OAM detection is discussed. Current challenges faced by the nanophotonic field for twisted-light manipulation and future advances to meet these challenges are further discussed. It is believed that twisted-light manipulation in nanophotonics will continue to make significant impact on future development of ultracompact, ultrahigh-capacity, and ultrahigh-speed OAM systems-on-a-chip.

Microcavity- and Microlaser-Based Optical Barcoding: A Review of Encoding Techniques and Applications

Optical microbarcodes have recently received a great deal of interest because of their suitability for a wide range of applications, such as multiplexed assays, cell tagging and tracking, anticounterfeiting, and product labeling. Spectral barcodes are especially promising because they are robust and have a simple readout. In addition, microcavity- and microlaser-based barcodes have very narrow spectra and therefore have the potential to generate millions of unique barcodes. This review begins with a discussion of the different types of barcodes and then focuses specifically on microcavity-based barcodes. While almost any kind of optical microcavity can be used for barcoding, currently whispering-gallery microcavities (in the form of spheres and disks), nanowire lasers, Fabry-Pérot lasers, random lasers, and distributed feedback lasers are the most frequently employed for this purpose. In microcavity-based barcodes, the information is encoded in various ways in the properties of the emitted light, most frequently in the spectrum. The barcode is dependent on the properties of the microcavity, such as the size, shape, and the gain materials. Various applications of these barcodes, including cell tracking, anticounterfeiting, and product labeling are described. Finally, the future prospects for microcavity- and microlaser-based barcodes are discussed.

Ultra-High Sensitivity and Temperature-Insensitive Optical Fiber Strain Sensor Based on Dual Air Cavities

This study proposed an all-fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) strain sensor with two miniature bubble cavities. The device was fabricated by writing two axial, mutually close short-line structures via femtosecond laser pulse illumination to induce a refractive index modified area in the core of a single-mode fiber (SMF). Subsequently, the gap between the two short lines was discharged with a fusion splicer, resulting in the formation of two adjacent bubbles simultaneously in a standard SMF. When measured directly, the strain sensitivity of dual air cavities is 2.4 pm/με, the same as that of a single bubble. The measurement range for a single bubble is 802.14 µε, while the measurement range for a double bubble is 1734.15 µε. Analysis of the envelope shows that the device possesses a strain sensitivity of up to 32.3 pm/με, which is 13.5 times higher than that of a single air cavity. Moreover, with a maximum temperature sensitivity of only 0.91 pm/°C, the temperature cross sensitivity could be neglected. As the device is based on the internal structure inside the optical fiber, its robustness could be guarantee. The device is simple to prepare, highly sensitive, and has wide application prospects in the field of strain measurement.

Ray-Wave Correspondence in Microstar Cavities

In a previous work by the authors (Phys. Rev. Research 2, 012072(R) (2020)) a novel concept of light confinement in a microcavity was introduced which is based on successive perfect transmissions at Brewster's angle. Hence, a new class of open billiards was designed with star-shaped microcavities where rays propagate on orbits that leave and re-enter the cavity. In this article, we investigate the ray-wave correspondence in microstar cavities. An unintuitive difference between clockwise and counterclockwise propagation is revealed which is traced back to nonlinear resonance chains in phase space.

Analytical and numerical design of a hybrid Fabry-Perot plano-concave microcavity for hexagonal boron nitride

An efficient single-photon emitter (SPE) should emit photons at a high rate into a well-defined spatio-temporal mode along with an accessible numerical aperture (NA) to increase the light extraction efficiency that is required for effective coupling into optical waveguides. Based on a previously developed experimental approach to fabricate hybrid Fabry-Perot microcavities (Ortiz-Huerta et al. Opt. Express 2018, 26, 33245), we managed to find analytical and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) values for the, experimentally achievable, geometrical parameters of a hybrid plano-concave microcavity that enhances the spontaneous emission (i.e., Purcell enhancement) of color centers in two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) while simultaneously limiting the NA of the emitter. Paraxial approximation and a transfer matrix model are used to find the spotsize of the fundamental Gaussian mode and the resonant modes of our microcavity, respectively. A Purcell enhancement of 6 is found for a SPE (i.e., in-plane dipole) hosted by a 2D hBN layer inside the hybrid plano-concave microcavity.

A Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Green OLED with 4500 h Lifetime and 20% External Quantum Efficiency by Optimizing the Emission Zone using a Single-Emission Spectrum Technique

Device optimization of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) targets the most efficient conversion of electrically injected charges into emitted light. The emission zone in an LED is where charges recombine and light is emitted from. It is believed that the emission zone is strongly linked to device efficiency and lifetime. However, the emission zone size is below the optical diffraction limit, so it is difficult to measure. An accessible method based on a single emission spectrum that enables emission zone measurements with sub-second time resolution is shown. A procedure is introduced to study and control the emission zone of an LED system and correlate it with device performance. A thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic LED emission zone is experimentally measured over all luminescing current densities, while varying the device structure and while ageing. The emission zone is shown to be finely controlled by emitter doping because electron transport via the emitter is the charge-transport bottleneck of the system. Suspected quenching/degradation mechanisms are linked with the emission zone changes, device structure variation, and ageing. Using these findings, a device with an ultralong 4500 h T₉₅ lifetime at 1000 cd m^-2 with 20% external quantum efficiency is shown.

Ultrahigh Resolution Pixelated Top-Emitting Quantum-Dot Light-Emitting Diodes Enabled by Color-Converting Cavities

Realizing pixelated quantum-dot light-emitting diodes for high-resolution displays remains a challenging task because of the difficulty of fine patterning the quantum-dots. In this study, instead of patterning the quantum-dots, the color-converting cavities for realizing high-resolution pixelated emission are developed. By defining the thicknesses of the transparent electrodes (phase tuning layers) through a photolithographic process, the resultant cavities can selectively convert the unpatterned quantum-dot white emission as saturated red, green, and blue emission with a brightness of 22170, 51930, and 3064 cd m^-2 at 5.5 V, respectively. The developed method enables the realization of ultrahigh density red, green, and blue emission for a display with a resolution of ≈1700 pixel-per-inch and a color gamut of 111% National Television System Committee; together with the advantages of quantum-dot patterning-free, color-filter-free and high brightness, the demonstrated architecture could find potential applications in various displays ranging from cell phone to emerging virtual reality and augmented reality displays.

Neuromorphic Binarized Polariton Networks

The rapid development of artificial neural networks and applied artificial intelligence has led to many applications. However, current software implementation of neural networks is severely limited in terms of performance and energy efficiency. It is believed that further progress requires the development of neuromorphic systems, in which hardware directly mimics the neuronal network structure of a human brain. Here, we propose theoretically and realize experimentally an optical network of nodes performing binary operations. The nonlinearity required for efficient computation is provided by semiconductor microcavities in the strong quantum light-matter coupling regime, which exhibit exciton-polariton interactions. We demonstrate the system performance against a pattern recognition task, obtaining accuracy on a par with state-of-the-art hardware implementations. Our work opens the way to ultrafast and energy-efficient neuromorphic systems taking advantage of ultrastrong optical nonlinearity of polaritons.

Computational Study of Dipole Radiation in Re-Absorbing Perovskite Semiconductors for Optoelectronics

Compared to organic emitters, perovskite materials generally have a small Stokes shift and correspondingly large re-absorption of dipole emission. Classical optical modelling methods ignoring re-absorption do not provide an adequate description of the observed light emission properties. Here, optical modelling methods and design rules for perovskite light-emitting diodes are presented. The transfer-matrix formalism is used to quantify the Poynting vectors generated by a dipole radiating inside a perovskite optoelectronic device. A strategy is presented to deal with non-radiative coupling to nearby emissive material that can otherwise lead to non-physical divergence in the calculation. Stability issues are also investigated regarding coherence of the light propagating in the substrate and the absence of a light absorber in the system. The benefit of the photon recycling effect is taken into account by recursive calculation of the dipole generation profile. The simulation results predict that a high external quantum efficiency of ≈40% is achievable in formamidinium lead triiodide-based perovskite light-emitting diodes, by optimization of microcavity, dipole orientation, and photon recycling effects. Contrary to conventional device structures currently reported, this work highlights the benefits of thick charge transport layers and thick perovskite with small Stokes shift.

Observation of Cooperative Purcell Enhancements in Antenna-Cavity Hybrids

Localizing light to nanoscale volumes through nanoscale resonators that are low loss and precisely tailored in spectrum to properties of matter is crucial for classical and quantum light sources, cavity QED, molecular spectroscopy, and many other applications. To date, two opposite strategies have been identified: to use either plasmonics with deep subwavelength confinement yet high loss and very poor spectral control or instead microcavities with exquisite quality factors yet poor confinement. In this work we realize hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonators that enhance the emission of single quantum dots, profiting from both plasmonic confinement and microcavity quality factors. Our experiments directly demonstrate how cavity and antenna jointly realize large cooperative Purcell enhancements through interferences. These can be controlled to engineer arbitrary Fano lineshapes in the local density of optical states.

Recent Progress in Vibropolaritonic Chemistry

Vibrational polaritonic chemistry is emerging as an exciting new sub-field of chemistry, one in which strong interactions with optical cavity vacuum fields are another degree of freedom alongside temperature, solvent, catalyst, and so on to modify thermochemical reactivity. The field stands at a fascinating juncture with experimental works on a variety of organic reactions continuing to blossom, just as many theoretical works appear which diverge significantly in their predictions compared to experiments. The outlook for the field is no doubt an exciting one as it seeks to unify the observed novel optical cavity-induced chemical phenomena with satisfying accompanying physical theory. In this minireview we highlight experimental works on vibrational polaritonic chemistry that have appeared most recently, focusing on the chemistry of the rate-limiting steps to provide mechanistic insight. We hope this review will encourage synthetic chemists to enter the field and we discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as polaritonic chemistry grows into the future.

Laser-Inscribed Diamond Waveguide Resonantly Coupled to Diamond Microsphere

An all-diamond photonic circuit was implemented by integrating a diamond microsphere with a femtosecond-laser-written bulk diamond waveguide. The near surface waveguide was fabricated by exploiting the Type II fabrication method to achieve stress-induced waveguiding. Transverse electrically and transverse magnetically polarized light from a tunable laser operating in the near-infrared region was injected into the diamond waveguide, which when coupled to the diamond microsphere showed whispering-gallery modes with a spacing of 0.33 nm and high-quality factors of 10⁵. By carefully engineering these high-quality factor resonances, and further exploiting the properties of existing nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond microspheres and diamond waveguides in such configurations, it should be possible to realize filtering, sensing and nonlinear optical applications in integrated diamond photonics.

Transparent Nanopore Cavity Arrays Enable Highly Parallelized Optical Studies of Single Membrane Proteins on Chip

Membrane proteins involved in transport processes are key targets for pharmaceutical research and industry. Despite continuous improvements and new developments in the field of electrical readouts for the analysis of transport kinetics, a well-suited methodology for high-throughput characterization of single transporters with nonionic substrates and slow turnover rates is still lacking. Here, we report on a novel architecture of silicon chips with embedded nanopore microcavities, based on a silicon-on-insulator technology for high-throughput optical readouts. Arrays containing more than 14 000 inverted-pyramidal cavities of 50 femtoliter volumes and 80 nm circular pore openings were constructed via high-resolution electron-beam lithography in combination with reactive ion etching and anisotropic wet etching. These cavities feature both, an optically transparent bottom and top cap. Atomic force microscopy analysis reveals an overall extremely smooth chip surface, particularly in the vicinity of the nanopores, which exhibits well-defined edges. Our unprecedented transparent chip design provides parallel and independent fluorescent readout of both cavities and buffer reservoir for unbiased single-transporter recordings. Spreading of large unilamellar vesicles with efficiencies up to 96% created nanopore-supported lipid bilayers, which are stable for more than 1 day. A high lipid mobility in the supported membrane was determined by fluorescent recovery after photobleaching. Flux kinetics of α-hemolysin were characterized at single-pore resolution with a rate constant of 0.96 ± 0.06 × 10^-3 s^-1. Here, we deliver an ideal chip platform for pharmaceutical research, which features high parallelism and throughput, synergistically combined with single-transporter resolution.

Advances of Optofluidic Microcavities for Microlasers and Biosensors

Optofluidic microcavities with high Q factor have made rapid progress in recent years by using various micro-structures. On one hand, they are applied to microfluidic lasers with low excitation thresholds. On the other hand, they inspire the innovation of new biosensing devices with excellent performance. In this article, the recent advances in the microlaser research and the biochemical sensing field will be reviewed. The former will be categorized based on the structures of optical resonant cavities such as the Fabry⁻Pérot cavity and whispering gallery mode, and the latter will be classified based on the working principles into active sensors and passive sensors. Moreover, the difficulty of single-chip integration and recent endeavors will be briefly discussed.

Tip‐mould microcontact printing for functionalisation of optical microring resonator

We present an approach to functionalise optical microring resonators as hybridisation platforms, using tip‐mould reactive microcontact printing process. Derived from reactive microcontact printing using an ad hoc mould of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the method functionalises single microring resonator with a target‐specific capture agent. The authors report the functionalisation of silicon nitride (SiN) 200 μ m diameter microring resonator with single‐strand DNA and the hybridisation detection of 100 nM target analyte, while concurrently monitoring not‐functionalised microring as a control sensor. Results show that the functionalisation approach permits to address single microring resonators with mutual distance lower than 100 μ m with high precision, enabling a better integration of multiple spotting zones on the chip concerning traditional functionalisation procedures.

Solvent-Assisted Micromolding of Biohybrid Hydrogels to Maintain Human Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells Ex Vivo

Array-format cell-culture carriers providing tunable matrix cues are instrumental in current cell biology and bioengineering. A new solvent-assisted demolding approach for the fabrication of microcavity arrays with very small feature sizes down to single-cell level (3 µm) of very soft biohybrid glycosaminoglycan-poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels (down to a shear modulus of 1 kPa) is reported. It is further shown that independent additional options of localized conjugation of adhesion ligand peptides, presentation of growth factors through complexation to gel-based glycosaminoglycans, and secondary gel deposition for 3D cell embedding enable a versatile customization of the hydrogel microcavity arrays for cell culture studies. As a proof of concept, cell-instructive hydrogel compartment arrays are used to analyze the response of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to defined biomolecular and spatial cues.

A Nanophotonic Structure Containing Living Photosynthetic Bacteria

Photosynthetic organisms rely on a series of self-assembled nanostructures with tuned electronic energy levels in order to transport energy from where it is collected by photon absorption, to reaction centers where the energy is used to drive chemical reactions. In the photosynthetic bacteria Chlorobaculum tepidum, a member of the green sulfur bacteria family, light is absorbed by large antenna complexes called chlorosomes to create an exciton. The exciton is transferred to a protein baseplate attached to the chlorosome, before migrating through the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex to the reaction center. Here, it is shown that by placing living Chlorobaculum tepidum bacteria within a photonic microcavity, the strong exciton-photon coupling regime between a confined cavity mode and exciton states of the chlorosome can be accessed, whereby a coherent exchange of energy between the bacteria and cavity mode results in the formation of polariton states. The polaritons have energy distinct from that of the exciton which can be tuned by modifying the energy of the optical modes of the microcavity. It is believed that this is the first demonstration of the modification of energy levels within living biological systems using a photonic structure.

Functionalizing a Tapered Microcavity as a Gas Cell for On-Chip Mid-Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy

Increasing demand for field instruments designed to measure gas composition has strongly promoted the development of robust, miniaturized and low-cost handheld absorption spectrometers in the mid-infrared. Efforts thus far have focused on miniaturizing individual components. However, the optical absorption path that the light beam travels through the sample defines the length of the gas cell and has so far limited miniaturization. Here, we present a functionally integrated linear variable optical filter and gas cell, where the sample to be measured is fed through the resonator cavity of the filter. By using multiple reflections from the mirrors on each side of the cavity, the optical absorption path is elongated from the physical μm-level to the effective mm-level. The device is batch-fabricated at the wafer level in a CMOS-compatible approach. The optical performance is analyzed using the Fizeau interferometer model and demonstrated with actual gas measurements.

On-Chip High-Finesse Fabry-Perot Microcavities for Optical Sensing and Quantum Information

For applications in sensing and cavity-based quantum computing and metrology, open-access Fabry-Perot cavities—with an air or vacuum gap between a pair of high reflectance mirrors—offer important advantages compared to other types of microcavities. For example, they are inherently tunable using MEMS-based actuation strategies, and they enable atomic emitters or target analytes to be located at high field regions of the optical mode. Integration of curved-mirror Fabry-Perot cavities on chips containing electronic, optoelectronic, and optomechanical elements is a topic of emerging importance. Micro-fabrication techniques can be used to create mirrors with small radius-of-curvature, which is a prerequisite for cavities to support stable, small-volume modes. We review recent progress towards chip-based implementation of such cavities, and highlight their potential to address applications in sensing and cavity quantum electrodynamics.

Microcavity Laser Based on a Single Molecule Thick High Gain Layer

The ability to confine excitons within monolayers has led to fundamental investigations of nonradiative energy transfer, super-radiance, strong light-matter coupling, high-efficiency light-emitting diodes, and recently lasers in lateral resonator architectures. Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), in which lasing occurs perpendicular to the device plane, are critical for telecommunications and large-scale photonics integration, however strong optical self-absorption and low fluorescence quantum yields have thus far prevented coherent emission from a monolayer microcavity device. Here we show lasing from a monolayer VCSEL using a single molecule thick film of amphiphilic fluorescent dye, assembled via Langmuir-Blodgett deposition, as the gain layer. Threshold was observed when 5% of the molecules were excited (4.4 μJ/cm²). At this level of excitation, the optical gain in the monolayer exceeds 1056 cm^-1. High localization of the excitons in the VCSEL gain layer can enhance their collective emission properties with Langmuir-Blodgett deposition presenting a paradigm for engineering the high gain layers on the molecular level.

Deterministic Self-Rolling of Ultrathin Nanocrystalline Diamond Nanomembranes for 3D Tubular/Helical Architecture

Nanocrystalline diamond nanomembranes with thinning-reduced flexural rigidities can be shaped into various 3D mesostructures, such as tubes, jagged ribbons, nested tubes, helices, and nested rings. Microscale helical diamond architectures are formed by controlled debonding in agreement with finite-element simulation results. Rolled-up diamond tubular microcavities exhibit pronounced defect-related photoluminescence with whispering-gallery-mode resonance.

Controlling the Cavity Structures of Two-Photon-Pumped Perovskite Microlasers

Low-threshold two-photon-pumped (TPP) perovskite microcavity lasers are achieved in crystal perovskite 1D or 2D microstructures fabricated through a liquid-phase self-assembly method assisted by two distinct surfactant soft templates. The lasing actions from the perovskite materials exhibit a shape-dependent microcavity effect, which is subsequently utilized for the modulation of the lasing modes and for the achievement of two-photon-pumped single-mode perovskite microlasers.

Lithium-Niobate-Silica Hybrid Whispering-Gallery-Mode Resonators

Lithium-niobate-silica hybrid resonators with quality factors higher than 10(5) are fabricated by depositing a layer of polycrystalline lithium niobate on the flat top surfaces of inverted-wedge silica microdisk resonators. All-optical modulation with improved performance over silica-only resonators and electro-optic modulation not achievable in silica-only resonators are realized in the hybrid resonators.

Fabry-Perot Microcavity Modes in Single GaP/GaNP Core/Shell Nanowires

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are attracting increasing interest as nanobuilding blocks for optoelectronics and photonics. A novel material system that is highly suitable for these applications are GaNP NWs. In this article, we show that individual GaP/GaNP core/shell nanowires (NWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates can act as Fabry-Perot (FP) microcavities. This conclusion is based on results of microphotoluminescence (μ-PL) measurements performed on individual NWs, which reveal periodic undulations of the PL intensity that follow an expected pattern of FP cavity modes. The cavity is concluded to be formed along the NW axis with the end facets acting as reflecting mirrors. The formation of the FP modes is shown to be facilitated by an increasing index contrast with the surrounding media. Spectral dependence of the group refractive index is also determined for the studied NWs. The observation of the FP microcavity modes in the GaP/GaNP core/shell NWs can be considered as a first step toward achieving lasing in this quasidirect bandgap semiconductor in the NW geometry.

Analogies between optical propagation and heat diffusion: applications to microcavities, gratings and cloaks

A new analogy between optical propagation and heat diffusion in heterogeneous anisotropic media has been proposed recently by three of the present authors. A detailed derivation of this unconventional correspondence is presented and developed. In time harmonic regime, all thermal parameters are related to optical ones in artificial metallic media, thus making possible to use numerical codes developed for optics. Then, the optical admittance formalism is extended to heat conduction in multilayered structures. The concepts of planar microcavities, diffraction gratings and planar transformation optics for heat conduction are addressed. Results and limitations of the analogy are emphasized.

Spreading of a Lidocaine Formulation on Microneedle-Treated Skin

The spreadability of a liquid drug formulation on skin is an indication of it either remaining stationary or distributing (spreading) as a droplet. Factors determining droplet spreadability of the formulation are spreading area, diameter of the droplet base, viscosity of the liquid, contact angle, volume of droplet on skin and any others. The creation of microcavities from the application of microneedle (MN) has the potential to control droplet spreading, and hence, target specific areas of skin for drug delivery. However, there is little work that demonstrates spreading of liquid drug formulation on MN-treated skin. Below, spreading of a lidocaine hydrogel formulation and lidocaine solution (reference liquid) on porcine skin is investigated over MN-treated skin. Controlled spreadability was achieved with the lidocaine hydrogel on MN-treated skin as compared with lidocaine solution. It was observed that the droplet spreading parameters such as spreading radius, droplet height and dynamic contact angle were slightly lower for the lidocaine hydrogel than the lidocaine solution on skin. Also, the lidocaine hydrogel on MN-treated skin resulted in slower dynamic reduction of droplet height, contact angle and reduced time taken in attaining static advancing droplets because of the MN microcavities.

The Detection of Helicobacter hepaticus Using Whispering-Gallery Mode Microcavity Optical Sensors. Biosensors (Basel). 2015;5:562-576. [PMID: 26262647 DOI: 10.3390/bios5030562]

Current bacterial detection techniques are relatively slow, require bulky instrumentation, and usually require some form of specialized training. The gold standard for bacterial detection is culture testing, which can take several days to receive a viable result. Therefore, simpler detection techniques that are both fast and sensitive could greatly improve bacterial detection and identification. Here, we present a new method for the detection of the bacteria Helicobacter hepaticus using whispering-gallery mode (WGM) optical microcavity-based sensors. Due to minimal reflection losses and low material adsorption, WGM-based sensors have ultra-high quality factors, resulting in high-sensitivity sensor devices. In this study, we have shown that bacteria can be non-specifically detected using WGM optical microcavity-based sensors. The minimum detection for the device was 1 × 10⁴ cells/mL, and the minimum time of detection was found to be 750 s. Given that a cell density as low as 1 × 10³ cells/mL for Helicobacter hepaticus can cause infection, the limit of detection shown here would be useful for most levels where Helicobacter hepaticus is biologically relevant. This study suggests a new approach for H. hepaticus detection using label-free optical sensors that is faster than, and potentially as sensitive as, standard techniques.

Facile synthesis of optical microcavities by a rationally designed anodization approach: tailoring photonic signals by nanopore structure

Structural engineering of porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanostructures by anodization has been extensively studied in the past two decades. However, the transition of this technique into the fabrication of AAO-based one-dimensional photonic crystal is still challenging. Herein, we report for the first time on the fabrication of AAO optical microcavities by a rationally designed anodization approach. In our study, two feasible methods are used to fabricate microcavities with tunable resonance peak across the visible and near-infrared spectra. Distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) nanostructures are first fabricated by pulse anodization approach, in which the anodization voltage was periodically manipulated to achieve pseudosinusoidal modulation of the effective refractive index gradient along the depth of the AAO nanostructures. Microcavities were created by creating a nanoporous layer of constant porosity between two AAO-DBR nanostructures, and by introducing a shift of the phase of the porosity gradient along the depth of AAO. The position of the resonance peak in these microcavities can be linearly tuned by means of the duration of the high voltage anodization. These optical nanostructures are sensitive to alterations of the effective media inside the nanopores. The AAO microcavity shows a central wavelength shift of 2.58 ± 0.37 nm when exposed to water vapor. Our research highlights the feasibility of anodization technique to fabricate AAO-based photonic nanostructures for advanced sensing applications.

Effect of Threading Dislocations on the Quality Factor of InGaN/GaN Microdisk Cavities

In spite of the theoretical advantages associated with nitride microcavities, the quality factors of devices with embedded indium gallium nitride (InGaN) or gallium nitride (GaN) optical emitters still remain low. In this work we identify threading dislocations (TDs) as a major limitation to the fabrication of high quality factor devices in the nitrides. We report on the use of cathodoluminescence (CL) to identify individual TD positions within microdisk lasers containing either InGaN quantum wells or quantum dots. Using CL to accurately count the number, and map the position, of dislocations within several individual cavities, we have found a clear correlation between the density of defects in the high-field region of a microdisk and its corresponding quality factor (Q). We discuss possible mechanisms associated with defects, photon scattering, and absorption, which could be responsible for degraded device performance.

Ultrasmall microdisk and microring lasers based on InAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots

Ultrasmall microring and microdisk lasers with an asymmetric air/GaAs/Al0.98Ga0.02As waveguide and an active region based on InAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots emitting around 1.3 μm were fabricated and studied. The diameter D of the microrings and microdisks was either 2 or 1.5 μm, and the inner diameter d of the microrings varied from 20% to 70% of the outer diameter D. The microring with D = 2 μm and d = 0.8 μm demonstrated a threshold pump power as low as 1.8 μW at room temperature. Lasing was observed up to 100°C owing to the use of quantum dots providing high confinement energy both for electrons and holes. Tuning spectral positions of the whispering gallery modes via changing the inner diameters of the microrings was demonstrated.

PACS

78.67.Hc; 42.55.Sa; 42.50.Pq; 78.55.Cr.

Application of cavitation promoting surfaces in management of acute ischemic stroke

High frequency, low intensity ultrasound has the potential to accelerate the clearance of thrombotic occlusion in the absence of cavitation. At high frequency ultrasound, high acoustic pressures, >5.2MPa, are required to generate cavitation in thrombus. The focus of this study was to reduce the cavitation threshold by applying materials with appropriate nucleation sites at the transducer-thrombus boundary to further augment sonothrombolysis. Heterogeneous and homogenous nucleation sites were generated on the outer surface of a polyimide tube (PI) using microfringed (MPI) and laser induced (LPI) microcavities. The cavitation threshold of these materials was determined using a passive cavitation detection system. Furthermore, the biological impact of both materials was investigated in vitro. The results revealed that both MPI and LPI have the potential to induce cavitation at acoustic pressure levels as low as 2.3MPa. In the presence of cavitation, thrombolysis rate could be enhanced by up to two times without any evidence of hemolysis that is generally associated with cavitation activities in blood. A prototype ultrasonic catheter operating at 1.7MHz frequency and acoustic pressure of 2.3MPa with either of MPI or LPI could be considered as a viable option for treatment of acute ischemic stroke.