The persistent threat of foodborne pathogens, despite safety measures, underscores the urgent need for highly sensitive and rapid sensing technologies to prevent outbreaks and mitigate their devastating health and economic impacts. The evolution of sensing technologies, from enzyme-based biosensors to advanced immuno-based methods, highlights a continuous drive to improve sensitivity, speed, and feasibility in pathogen detection. Immuno-based biosensors have revolutionized pathogen detection by advancements in miniaturization, offering swift, sensitive, and cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods. Mainly, two categories of immuno-based biosensors have become largely demanding for POC; signal transduction-based, such as electrochemical, optical, and quartz crystal microbalance technologies, have significantly advanced pathogen detection by offering real-time, hyper-sensitive, and prompt monitoring capabilities, making them promising tools for field-deployable diagnostics. The second category, platform design-based immuno-based biosensors, such as lateral flow assays, microfluidic paper-based devices, and microchip-based devices, offer cost-effective, facile, and precise pathogen detection for use in food safety and outbreak prediction analysis. Nevertheless, numerous other biosensor types exist, but this review will focus on a few selective ones to enhance clarity and readability. The review shall summarize the state-of-the-art advancements in food pathogen sensing by immuno-based biosensors, their effectiveness, progress, and categories. Racing from qualification to quantification, the discussion will cover the challenges encountered and loopholes in the developed immuno-biosensing methodologies, including material-related issues (e.g., batch variability of nanomaterials, single-use paper substrates) and assay design (e.g., complex microfluidic architectures and multi-step protocols) that affect reproducibility, waste generation, and dependence on trained operators. It will reflect on a comparative study between the most recent emerging works based on good linear range, limit of detections (LODs), types of real samples utilized and short detection time for addressing their impact as POC devices. Unlike previous reviews that typically focus on isolated sensing mechanisms, this article provides a comparative analysis of both signal-transduction-based and platform-design-based immuno-biosensors, coupled with emphasis on recent advances relevant to point-of-care food pathogen detection.

Musical stimulation can activate specific brain regions and modulate neural functions, whereas optical and magnetic stimulation technologies enable precise neuronal manipulation. However, traditional neural stimulation approaches mostly adopt a single mode, and research on their combined regulatory effects is still limited. Light-magnetic combined stimulation (LMCS), as an emerging multi-modal physical neural modulation technique, has demonstrated unique advantages in regulating neural activity and synaptic plasticity and holds significant potential for application in the fields of cognitive enhancement and neural rehabilitation. This study innovatively combines two physical stimulation modalities-light and magnetic fields-using musical signals as the modulation source to explore their synergistic effects on synaptic plasticity in the hippocampal Schaffer collateral-CA1 region of rats. We designed a high spatial resolution light-magnetic stimulation system; utilizing this system, invitro brain slice experiments were conducted, applying single-light, single-magnetic, and combined light-magnetic stimulation respectively. Changes in long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) were recorded. The experimental results showed that the combined light-magnetic stimulation, when synchronized with specific musical rhythms, exhibited the optimal regulatory effects on both LTP and LTD, outperforming single stimulation modes. This study verified the effectiveness of light-magnetic combined stimulation based on music rhythm in regulating LTP/LTD and provided design parameters and experimental basis for the development of the equipment.

Optical activity of chiral materials is a crucial parameter for advancing our knowledge of light-smatter interactions and for driving innovations in optical device technology. Conventional chiroptical spectroscopy methods, such as circular dichroism (CD), are widely used to probe biomolecular structures in the UV-Visible range but often suffer from scattering and diffraction limitations. In contrast, photoacoustics convert absorbed optical energy into acoustic signals, thereby offering enhanced sensitivity and deeper penetration when employed in the near-infrared (NIR) region. We investigate the photoacoustic circular dichroism (PACD) response of optically active D-glucose in the NIR-II (1400-1600 nm) range and Naproxen, a NSAID drug (in the 1300-1600 nm), using a microfluidic device with a 700 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>m channel and sample volume of 0.3mL. PACD from our system demonstrated measurable phase changes at glucose concentrations as low as 120 mg/dL and enabled sensing across practical depths of 1-2 mm. We further introduced a metric termed Circular Differential Absorption Intensity (CDAI), which provides a more robust photoacoustic-based circular dichroism spectrum. Furthermore, optical rotary dispersion (ORD) was derived from CDAI, offering wavelength-resolved optical rotation data. This is the first demonstration of optical rotary dispersion (ORD) derived from photoacoustic measurements, enabling deeper spectral insights into chiral systems. The integration of optical and acoustic methodologies not only advances our understanding of chiral systems but also opens new avenues for biomolecular characterization, and lab-on-a-chip diagnostics and sensing applications.

Multiplexed biosensing: A review of surface plasmon resonance platforms for biomarker analysis.

While light scattering is widely utilized in optical metrology and measurement, it has long been regarded as detrimental in laser-material processing. Here, we report an interferometric scattering effect that overturns this conventional view by resolving the six-decade challenge of axial resolution in optical manufacturing. This breakthrough elevates the axial resolution from micrometers, e.g., ~2 µm in transparent solids slicing, to the sub-10 nm level. The underlying mechanism involves the controlled sequential generation of nano-scatterers through interference between the incident laser and deliberately seeded scattering centers. Based on this phenomenon, we developed an interferometric scattering-based optical tomoslicing technology (i-SOT), achieving kerf widths as narrow as 7 nm under an industrial standard efficiency of up to 400 mm²/s. This unprecedented axial resolution enables nearly lossless laser wafering from ingots-reducing mass loss from ~30% to below 1% - with transformative potential for manufacturing laser crystals, photovoltaics, and microelectronic chips.

ABSTRACT The hydrometallurgical recovery of copper from end-of-life cables and its conversion into value-added materials represents a promising route for secondary resource utilisation. In this study, high-purity copper (98.8 wt.% Cu) obtained from mechanically processed waste cables was leached using sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Leaching kinetics were evaluated using the shrinking core model, indicating a mixed control mechanism involving chemical reaction and product layer diffusion, with an apparent activation energy of 22.99 kJ mol−¹. Under optimised conditions (4 M H₂SO₄, 90°C, solid/liquid ratio of 1:10, and 100 g L−¹ H₂O₂), copper dissolution reached 96.9% after 480 min. The resulting pregnant leach solution was directly utilised for copper borate synthesis without the addition of commercial CuSO₄, providing a closed-loop approach for copper valorisation. XRD, FT-IR, and SEM–EDS analyses confirmed that precipitation at pH 8.0 produced phase-pure, fine-grained crystalline copper borate (Cu₃(BO₃)₂) with a homogeneous morphology, whereas lower or higher pH values led to incomplete precipitation or secondary phase formation. The proposed waste-to-product route demonstrates the feasibility of converting cable-derived copper into functional copper borate for potential applications in wood preservation, agriculture, and optical technologies.

Terrestrial organisms employ diverse camouflage strategies, yet the fluctuating humidity and light conditions of arboreal habitats demand dynamic adaptations. This study investigated a novel mechanism of dynamic camouflage in the arboreal snails Hypselostyla camelopardalis (Camaenidae) and Reinia variegata (Clausiliidae). These phylogenetically distant species exhibit a reversible hygrochromic change: their mottled shell patterns disappear upon wetting, turning uniform dark brown, and rapidly reappear as they dry. Using a multimodal approach-including confocal laser microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and spectrophotometry, this study shows that the colour change is associated with structural modifications within the bilayered organic periostracum. In the white regions, hydration fills microscale voids and smooths surface irregularities, effectively matching the refractive index of the periostracum and increasing light transmittance. While camouflage in terrestrial gastropods was previously considered static, our findings reveal an environmentally responsive system that dynamically adjusts to ambient moisture. This mechanism parallels strategies observed in certain insects, and is consistent with functional convergent evolution. Furthermore, the water-responsive thin-film structure of the snail shell provides a biological blueprint for the development of bioinspired smart materials, such as humidity-sensitive coatings and adaptive optical technologies.

The integration of graphene with metallic layers provides a versatile platform for hybrid materials in electronic and optical technologies. Here, we investigate interdiffusion phenomena at the molybdenum-tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS)-derived SiO2 interface during graphene growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Graphene was grown on a 35 nm thick continuous sputtered molybdenum film and on nanostructured molybdenum patterns defined by electron beam lithography, both supported on a 1.6 μm thick TEOS-derived SiO2 layer. The samples were characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. On the flat molybdenum film, the CVD process leads to the formation of Mo-Si and Mo-C phases and to the growth of approximately 15 graphene layers. In contrast, nanostructured molybdenum undergoes solid-state dewetting, resulting in morphological instability and the formation of only about 5 graphene layers. These results demonstrate that catalyst geometry critically influences graphene thickness: interdiffusion is predominantly unidirectional in planar films, whereas it becomes multidirectional in confined nanostructures, leading to partial carbon loss and enhanced silicon incorporation. The loss of structural homogeneity below a critical lateral dimension highlights the key role of interfacial diffusion and surface morphology in controlling graphene growth on metal-oxide substrates.

Light carries both spin (polarization) and orbital angular momentum. Combining these degrees of freedom produces hybrid spin-orbit states that live in a high-dimensional Hilbert space, offering greater information capacity and robustness for optical communication, quantum technologies, and metrology. However, generating arbitrary states in these spaces and characterizing them efficiently has remained difficult. Here we show a compact metasurface that generates arbitrary spin-orbit states in a four-dimensional Hilbert space, visualized on a Poincaré hypersphere, with straightforward scalability to higher dimensions. Using a tetratomic unit cell, the single-layer device precisely controls complex amplitude, phase, and polarization. We further introduce an efficient interferometric scheme that reconstructs the full density matrix of any N-dimensional spin-orbit state using only three interferograms. This approach uncovers an intrinsic spin-orbit parity order that governs the symmetry of projected intensity patterns, independent of the weighting of the eigenmodes, and enables controlled mode transformations through higher-order geometric phases. These advances establish a versatile platform for high-dimensional photonic technologies.

Effect of Switching Myopia Control Strategies on Axial Elongation in Children with Poor Response to Highly Aspherical Lenslet Therapy.

Raman spectrometry, with its capability to noninvasively characterize the molecular composition of microscopic subcellular volumes, including single organelles in live cells, has revolutionized cell biology research. Being introduced as a label-free approach for biochemical imaging, the practical applications of Raman spectrometry still often include the fluorescence probes for the localization of organelles and other subcellular domains of interest. Aiming to overcome this limitation, we report on the development of an artificial intelligence/machine learning approach for true label-free identification of different types of subcellular structures. Here, we explore the application of machine learning (ML) to learn the relationship between a set of biochemical parameters in single organelles of live cells. The biochemical parameters are extracted by Ramanomics, an optical Omics technology, from Raman spectra of single organelles of live cells of different cell lines. Several classification algorithms, such as neural networks, Random Forests, support vector machines, logistic regression, and Gaussian process classification, are evaluated. We report the performance of the best classifier, a shallow neural network, to classify the type of organelle using the biochemical parameters. Evaluation is done using k-fold cross-validation (k = 10), and the final output classification is compared against the ground truth. The k-fold cross-validation shows that the NN-based classifier has significant accuracy (∼90%) to distinguish between different organelles using Ramanomics measurements. Our approach allows us to identify the precise location of separate organelles by local Raman measurement without labeling.

Manipulation of optical properties and band structure engineering of ultrathin nc-Si films due to the hydrogen dilution effect and annealing

Circularly polarized light is essential for applications in optical communication, quantum computing, display systems, and chiral material characterization, among others. Yet, the inherently weak chiroptical response of most materials remains a fundamental limitation. Chiral nanophotonics overcomes this challenge by strongly enhancing light-matter interactions through resonant subwavelength nanostructures. Among these, emitters coupled to chiral bound states in the continuum (BICs) have shown excellent performance. However, the majority of chiral BIC architectures depend on costly nanofabrication processes, which significantly limit their scalability. Here, soft nanoimprinting lithography is used to produce chiral nanostructures that enable chiral lasing from an organic dye embedded in the patterned resist. Nearly fully circularly polarized lasing emission (97%) arises from coupling the dye photoluminescence to supported BIC resonances, as revealed by angular dispersion measurements and corroborated by Fourier microscopy and FDTD simulations. These results confirm coupling between orthogonally polarized TE and TM modes causing the BIC. Our work establishes a scalable route toward highly chiral light sources, advancing practical nanophotonic platforms for quantum and optical technologies.

Contrast Polarity Differences Across Indoor Subscenes and Outdoor Visual Environments: Implications for Myopia Risk.

Abstract Mature electrical geophone technologies for active and passive borehole seismic are challenged to address emerging permanent monitoring needs like CO2 storage, geothermal, production optimization, High Pressure - High Temperature (HP-HT) reservoir surveillance and induced seismicity detection. Optical technologies (including Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based Optical Point Sensors (OPS)) are investigated as candidates to complement or eventually replace geophones for borehole seismic acquisition (imaging or monitoring). Permanent seismic sources are needed for 4D monitoring. The GeoLite project is designed to evaluate such an innovative approach, combining DAS and FBG based Optical Point Sensors. After an initial shallow borehole prototype test in 2020, stronger downhole tools were built and tested in field conditions in 2024 and 2025 in the Midland Basin to record induced seismicity and to perform seismic borehole imaging. DAS was embedded in the GeoLite cable to combine the two optical technologies in a single array. It was deployed in parallel with a standard geophone wireline tool. It was the first time that such a design was considered for passive and active seismic evaluation. It comprised: two observer wells, a hybrid borehole optical system (DAS/ Slim multicomponent multilevel FBG array), a standard geophone borehole array, a network of surface stations, a Vibroseis source truck and a permanently anchored automated seismic source. Active and passive seismic were acquired by all systems. The experiment established the operational feasibility of GeoLite as a wireline tool. Broadband seismic data were acquired across both campaigns. Stronger coupling for this light tool was identified as an improvement for future wireline operations. For permanent deployment inside the casing, the small size of the FBG sensor is an advantage. Surface station records confirmed the limited detectability for small events from surface compared to borehole sensors.

Short-distance optical communication technology has been promoted to a crucial position with the rapid development of network systems centered around data, which inevitably leads to the urgency of developing a high-performance optical transmission medium. To address these requirements, several ternary copolymerized polyimides, known as high-performance engineering plastics, are developed through the most common two-step thermal imidization strategy. The introduction of trifluoromethoxy (-OCF3) groups provides polymers with an ultrahigh refractive index above 1.8 under the common observation conditions of communication wavelengths, as well as an ultralow birefringence of 0.003. More importantly, under the chief band of optical fiber communication at 1310 and 1550 nm, generated by modulated lasers, these polymers show very weak light absorption and signal attenuation behaviors, thereby demonstrating huge potential in the field of optical waveguide device development. Additionally, considering the extremely low moisture absorption of the polymers, these transparent polyimides with high refractive index are expected to be fundamental material candidates in many fields, such as optical communication, the Internet of Things, 5G transmission, and other advanced technologies in extreme environments.

Update on the structure-function relationship in glaucoma.

Direct optical lithography of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) offers distinct advantages, including high throughput, process simplicity, and uniform pattern profiles, making it a promising technique for high-resolution displays. However, a significant challenge remains in achieving ultra-bright and stable patterned QD light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) suitable for practical applications using this technology. Here, we present a straightforward direct photo-patterning method based on a small-molecule cross-linked network that preserves the photoluminescence and electroluminescence performance of QDs. This approach enables the fabrication of high-resolution patterns with a critical dimension of 2µm (∼6,350 pixels per inch) without requiring pre-patterning of QDs before small-molecule crosslinking. The resulting QLED demonstrate a ultra-high brightness exceeding 1000000cd/m2, a high external quantum efficiency of ∼18% at 100000cd/m2, and a long T95 lifetime of >12,000 h at 1000cd/m2. To the best of our knowledge, both the device brightness and T95 lifetime represent the best performance results reported so far based on direct optical lithography technology. This method holds significant potential for ultra-high-brightness, long-lasting displays, particularly augmented reality applications tailored to outdoor scenarios.

Thin-film lithium tantalate (TFLT) is considered a key next-generation platform for integrated photonics due to its strong electro-optic effect and low propagation loss. This work demonstrates for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the design and fabrication of a photonic crystal ring resonator (PhCR) along with its electro-optic modulator on TFLT. The fabricated PhCR achieves high quality factors of 2.16 × 10⁵ and 1.08 × 10⁵ in the air and dielectric bands, respectively, and a pronounced slow-light effect (with a slow-light factor S > 3). This confirms the platform's capability to support both high-Q optical resonance and effective dispersion engineering. The PhCR modulator, constructed with a reduced bending radius, features a low half-wave voltage-length product of 1.71 V·cm and an electro-optic bandwidth of 44 GHz, demonstrating its potential for high-speed signal processing. This work fills a critical gap for slow-light photonic crystal devices on TFLT and establishes an experimental foundation for future active and multifunctional slow-light photonic devices on this platform.

Insights on prechamber enabled mixing-controlled combustion (PC-MCC) with methanol in an optical heavy-duty engine