Tunable Resonance Research Articles

Mapping of Sensing Performance of Concentric and Non-Concentric Silver Nanoring

Sensors play a critical role in improving overall human quality of life. They have been employed in most aspects of our lives. A recently emerging sensing platform is based on plasmonic resonance at the boundary of metals and dielectrics. Localized surface plasmon resonances–based sensors offer miniaturization, a simple setup, and relatively high sensitivity for real-time measurements. The reported figure of merit (FOM) of the LSPR-based sensor is generally limited, primarily due to its broad resonance peak. Nanorings composed of metal nanoparticles are known for their broad-range resonance tunability, high field localization, and large sensing area. Asymmetry of the nanoring with the introduction of core offset relaxes the selection rule for mode mixing, thus resulting in a narrower resonance peak. This may overcome broad resonance peak restriction. Concentric and non-concentric nanorings were simulated using the boundary element method implemented with the MNPBEM toolbox. We map the performance of nanoring sensors over a wide range of geometrical variations, namely, diameter, ring shell thickness, and the offset of the inner ring to the center of the outer ring wall (core offset). Sensitivity and FOM were found to rely substantially on the nanoring size parameters. The sensing performance map helps to obtain optimized nanoring parameters for the intended spectral range region. The obtained high sensitivity and FOM are much higher than the data available in the literature over visible and NIR ranges. The findings demonstrate the potential of nanorings for biosensing applications. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-04-04 Full Text: PDF

A Frequency Tunable Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Reduction of Cross Polarisation for Wi MAX and Sub 6 GHz 5G Applications

A frequency Tunable (mechanical tuning) Linearly Polarized (TLP) rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antenna(DRA) coupled with a horizontal/vertical-slot and excited with circular-ring type feed is investigated in this article.The frequency tunability (mechanical tuning) is achieved by the rotation of slot at different angles of the proposedstructure. Hence, two linearly polarized antennas have been proposed for different frequency bands such as Wi-MAX and Sub-6 GHz/5G, respectively, using slot variations (named as DRA-1 and DRA-2). TE 11δ mode has been excited in both the DRAs and confirmed by orientation of electric field inside the rectangular DRA. The measured -10 dB input impedance bandwidths of DRA-1 offer 21.60 % being centered at 2.87 GHz and the separation of co-polarized and cross-polarized field levels is above -24 dB in the broadside direction (xz-plane). Whereas DRA-2 offers measured -10 dB input impedance bandwidths of 23.03% being centered at 3.56 GHz having a separation of co-polarized and cross-polarized field levels are above -23 dB in the broadside direction (xz-plane). In addition, the proposed DRA-1 and DRA-2 show a maximum gain of 5.23 dBi and 4.75 dBi in broadside direction, respectively.

Frequency-fixed motion compensation system for in-vivo electron paramagnetic resonance tooth dosimetry

This article describes the design process for a motion compensation system that can suppress the spectral distortion caused by human motion and breathing during in-vivo electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy on an intact incisor. The developed system consists of two elements: an electronically controlled tunable resonator and an automatic control circuit (ACC). The resonator can modify the resonant frequency and impedance by tuning and matching the voltage, while the ACC can generate a feedback signal using phase-sensitive detection (PSD). The signal is transferred into the resonator to maintain the critical coupling state. The tunable frequency range of the resonator was measured at over 10 MHz, offering approximately eight times the required range. The bandwidth of the resonator fluctuated in a negligible range (0.14% relative standard error) following the resonant frequency. With the feedback signal on, in-vivo EPR measurements were demonstrated to be a stable baseline with 35% higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When one incisor sample was irradiated by an X-ray instrument, the EPR signal responses to the absorbed doses of 0–10 Gy exhibited high linearity (R2 = 0.994). In addition, the standard error of inverse prediction was estimated to be 0.35 Gy. The developed system achieved a discrimination ability of 2 Gy, which is required for triage in large-scale radiation accidents. Moreover, the compensation is fully automated, meaning that the system can be operated with simple training in an emergency.

Asymmetric L-shaped resonant optical antennas with plasmon length tuning and high-electric field enhancement

L-shaped resonant optical antennas (ROAs) are low-symmetry plasmonic nanostructures with the unique ability to show two tunable resonances in the optical and near-infrared wavelength regions. The plasmon length of the so-called longitudinal dipolar fundamental plasmon mode of these asymmetric L-shaped ROAs can be used as plasmon resonance building blocks to design polarization-sensitive devices. This paper introduces and numerically analyzes a novel design of asymmetric L-shape ROAs. The reported design offers two resonance modes, i.e., bimodal longitudinal antenna resonance behavior with a high enhancement factor. These two resonances can be selectively excited by changing the linear polarization angle. It is found that the coupled L-shaped ROA with a very small 2 nm gap width exhibits field enhancements 40 and 147.3 on scale left|{E}_{TOT}right|/left|{E}_{IN}right| for the high energy and low energy resonance, respectively. The obtained results and the analysis open a new route for multiple plasmon resonance devices with ultra-high field enhancement that can be easily integrated with future nano-optical circuits with multiple operational frequencies.

Cascaded Reflection-Type Group Delay Controller With a Wideband Flat Group Delay

This letter presents a wideband group delay controller (GDC) based on cascaded reflection-type phase shifters (RTPSs). Frequency tunable resonators are used as the reflective loads of each phase shifter so that the phase shifter has a variable group delay resulting in a reflection-type GDC (RTGDC). Two RTGDCs with different types of reflective loads are cascaded to compensate for their group delay variation over frequency. The first and the second stage of the cascaded RTGDC are respectively in charge of the delay in low and high-frequency bands and the cascaded delay is flat over a wide bandwidth. The proposed cascaded RTGDC operates at 3.7 GHz over 200-MHz bandwidth. The measured group delay varies from 0.67 to 2.18 ns, which is a 1.51-ns group delay variation under 9.1% normalized group delay variation over the bandwidth. The return loss is over 18 dB and the insertion loss is 2.1 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 1.3 dB at 3.7 GHz.

A pH-responsive magnetic resonance tuning probe for precise imaging of bacterial infection in vivo.

Accurate and sensitive detection of bacteria is essential for treating bacterial infections. Herein, a pH-responsive magnetic resonance tuning (MRET) probe, whose T1-weighted signal is activated in the bacteria-infected acid microenvironment, is developed for in situ accurately magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of bacterial infection in vivo. The MRET probe (MDVG-1) is an assembly of paramagnetic enhancer (gadolinium-modified i-motif DNA3, abbreviated as Gd-DNA3-Gd) and the precursor of superparamagnetic quencher (DNA and vancomycin-modified magnetic nanoparticle, abbreviated as MDV). The T1-weighted signal of Gd-DNA3-Gd is quenched once the formation of MDVG-1 (MRET ON). Interestingly, the MDVG-1 probe was disassembled into the monomers of Gd-DNA3-Gd and MDV under the bacteria-infected acid microenvironment, resulting significantly enhanced T1-weighted signal at the infected site (MRET OFF). The pH-responsive MRET probe-based enhanced MRI signal and bacteria targeting significantly improve the distinction between bacterial infectious tissues and sterile inflamed tissues, which provides a promising approach for accurately detecting bacterial infection in vivo. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: : Detecting pathogenic bacteria in vivo based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategy has been exploring recently. Although various bacterial-targeted MRI probes have been developed to image bacteria in vivo, the MRI signal of these MRI probes is always "on", which inevitably generates nonspecific background MRI signals, affecting the accuracy of MRI to a certain extent. In the current study, based on the magnetic resonance tuning (MRET) phenomenon, we present a pH-responsive MRET probe (MDVG-1) with T2-weighted imaging to T1-weighted imaging switchable properties to achieve in situ precise imaging of bacterial infection in vivo.

Harnessing chiral buckling structure to design tunable local resonance metamaterial for low-frequency vibration isolation

This paper proposes a tunable local resonance metamaterial with chiral buckling structures for low-frequency vibration isolation. The unit cell consists of the inner and outer buckling stiffness structure, basic structure, and local resonator. The bistability of three kinds of unit cells with different initial shapes of beams is investigated and compared via the elliptic integral method and finite element analysis. Then, their axial stiffness in different states is studied. The dynamic responses of the metamaterial with simple unit cells and hybrid supercells are theoretically derived and analyzed by Bloch's theorem and transfer coefficient method. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental results demonstrate that the unit cell with initially convex downward beams has strong bistability and determinate deformation modes. The axial stiffness of the unit cell in two stable states differs by an order of magnitude. Changing some specific parameters broadens the gap in the axial stiffness between the two stable states. The axial negative stiffness characteristics and rotation effect of the unit cell have the potential for energy dissipation and tensile-torsion material. The metamaterial with simple unit cells has tunable and wide band gap and low-frequency vibration isolation via the stable states switching of the inner and outer buckling stiffness structures. The metamaterial with hybrid supercells can further broaden the band gap width and lower the band gap frequency, which has up to 16 different band gap characteristics.

Tunable dielectric resonator antenna with circular polarization and wide bandwidth for terahertz applications

In this paper, a tunable wideband circularly polarization (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is designed and simulated. The antenna is fed by slot coupling and circular polarization is achieved by the design of the slot configuration and by the excitation of different modes. The tunable response is provided by coating graphene on the top of the radiating dielectric resonator. The proposed antenna provides a wide 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 49% (2.7–4.46 THz) and an overlapped axial ratio bandwidth of 17.34% (2.87–3.43 THz).

Tunable Fano resonance with an ultra-wide free spectral range from a photonic integrated circuit.

In this paper, a reconfigurable photonic integrated circuit that can produce various resonances is proposed and demonstrated. Particularly, it can generate a high performance Fano resonance with an ultra-wide free-spectral range. Moreover, the extinction ratio, slope rate, and center wavelength of the Fano resonance are tunable using integrated phase shifters. This work paves the way towards a variety of new applications, including low threshold lasers, low power consumption modulators, and high sensitivity sensors.

Material- and shape-dependent optical modes of hyperbolic spheroidal nano-resonators.

Hyperbolic nanoresonators, composed of anisotropic materials with opposite signs of permittivity, have unique optical properties due to a large degree of freedom that hyperbolic dispersion provides in designing their response. Here, we focus on uniaxial hyperbolic nanoresonators composed of a model silver-silica multilayer in the form of spheroids with a broad aspect ratio encompassing both prolate and oblate particles. The origin and evolution of the optical response and mode coupling are investigated using both numerical (T-matrix and FDTD) and theoretical methods. We show the tunability of the optical resonances and the interplay of the shape and material anisotropy in determining the spectral response. Depending on the illumination conditions as well as shape and material anisotropy, a single hyperbolic spheroid can show a dominant electric resonance, behaving as a pure metallic nanoparticle, or a strong dipolar magnetic resonance even in the quasistatic regime. The quasistatic magnetic response of indicates a material-dependent origin of the mode, which is obtained due to coupling of the magnetic and electric multipoles. Such coupling characteristics can be employed in various modern applications based on metasurfaces.

Thermally generated Au–Ag nanostructures with tunable localized surface plasmon resonance as SERS activity substrates

Various Au–Ag bimetallic alloy nanostructures were obtained as sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates by changing the thermal annealing sequence. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results confirm that Au/Ag bimetallic clusters and Ag–Au core-shell like structures can be designed by thermal annealing. The absorption spectra showed that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) frequency of the annealed Au/Ag bimetallic alloy structure could effectively shift from the near ultraviolet to the visible region. At the same time, the Au/Ag bimetallic alloy films modified by thermal annealing have shown satisfactory performance as SERS substrates. Raman enhancement mechanism of Au–Ag bimetallic alloy films is verified by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation results.

Intrinsic strong light-matter coupling with self-hybridized bound states in the continuum in van der Waals metasurfaces.

Photonic bound states in the continuum (BICs) provide a standout platform for strong light-matter coupling with transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) but have so far mostly been implemented as traditional all-dielectric metasurfaces with adjacent TMDC layers, incurring limitations related to strain, mode overlap and material integration. Here, we demonstrate intrinsic strong coupling in BIC-driven metasurfaces composed of nanostructured bulk tungsten disulfide (WS2) and exhibiting resonances with sharp, tailored linewidths and selective enhancement of light-matter interactions. Tuning of the BIC resonances across the exciton resonance in bulk WS2 is achieved by varying the metasurface unit cells, enabling strong coupling with an anticrossing pattern and a Rabi splitting of 116 meV. Crucially, the coupling strength itself can be controlled and is shown to be independent of material-intrinsic losses. Our self-hybridized metasurface platform can readily incorporate other TMDCs or excitonic materials to deliver fundamental insights and practical device concepts for polaritonic applications.

Electrically driven nanogap antennas and quantum tunneling regime

Abstract The optical and electrical characteristics of electrically-driven nanogap antennas are extremely sensitive to the nanogap region where the fields are tightly confined and electrons and photons can interplay. Upon injecting electrons in the nanogap, a conductance channel opens between the metal surfaces modifying the plasmon charge distribution and therefore inducing an electrical tuning of the gap plasmon resonance. Electron tunneling across the nanogap can be harnessed to induce broadband photon emission with boosted quantum efficiency. Under certain conditions, the energy of the emitted photons exceeds the energy of electrons, and this overbias light emission is due to spontaneous emission of the hot electron distribution in the electrode. We conclude with the potential of electrically controlled nanogap antennas for faster on-chip communication.

Independently Tunable Triband Patch Antenna with Band-Notched Characteristics for X-Band Applications

This paper presents a triband antenna with a simple design for X-band applications. The proposed antenna is designed based on a patch with a truncated corner slot and complementary split-ring resonators in the ground plane. In this way, the antenna exhibits three operating bands and its resonant frequencies can be controlled independently by changing dimensions of the slot in the patch and the resonator structures in the ground plane. In addition, due to the antiresonant behavior of the complementary split-ring resonator structures, the antenna exhibits a notch-band characteristic at 10.7 GHz. A parametric study is performed to provide a detailed understanding of the independent resonance tuning behavior of the antenna. Both simulated and measured results of the proposed antenna are presented, which are in good agreement. The proposed antenna shows three operating bands in the X-band including (with absolute and relative bandwidths) 9.4–9.7 GHz (300 MHz, 3.14%), 10.3–10.6 GHz (300 MHz, 2.86%), and 11.05–11.32 GHz (297 MHz, 2.66%). In addition to that, a notched band of 10.6–11.05 GHz is introduced to exclude operation in the frequency bands of radiometric observation systems (10.6–10.7 GHz). To the best of our knowledge, this work is unique in its combination of independent tuning of three frequency bands of operation with single-layer implementation in the X-band. Such a structure provides additional degrees of freedom to the antenna design, customizing operation in the required bands while avoiding operation in other bands.

Shaping the Plasmonic Response: Hollow Gold Elliptical Nanotubes

AbstractHighly tunable localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances in metal nanostructures are of great importance for manipulating light waves and enhancing light–matter interactions at the nanoscale. Here, a new type of plasmonic resonators based on hollow elliptical nanotubes, which can generate highly tunable LSP resonances in the visible frequencies, are reported. High‐quality hollow gold (Au) elliptical nanotubes with fine controllable size and morphology are experimentally fabricated. Dark‐field scattering measurements reveal the presence of multiple plasmon resonances including longitudinal Fabry–Pérot resonances and transverse hybridized LSP resonances due to rotational symmetry breaking. Upon varying the ellipticity, the hybridized LSP resonances exhibit continuously spectral evolution behaviors, such as the hybridized modes shifting and crossing. The experimental results show good agreement with the rigorous electromagnetic modeling and Raman spectroscopic measurements. The hollow anisotropic geometries provide highly tunable plasmonic responses together with homogeneous field distributions and high surface‐to‐volume ratio, which hold great potential for practical applications in sensing, nonlinear optics, surface‐enhanced spectroscopies, and bio‐medicine.

Precision Tailoring Quasi-BIC Resonance of a-Si:H Metasurfaces.

The capability of tailoring the resonance wavelength of metasurfaces is important as it can alleviate the manufacturing precision required to produce the exact structure according to the design of the nanoresonators. Tuning of Fano resonances by applying heat has been theoretically predicted in the case of silicon metasurfaces. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the permanent tailoring of quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BIC) resonance wavelength in an a-Si:H metasurface and quantitatively analyze the modification in the Q-factor with gradual heating. A gradual increment in temperature leads to a spectral shift in the resonance wavelength. With the support of ellipsometry measurements, the spectral shift resulting from the short-duration (ten minutes) heating is identified to be due to refractive index variations in the material rather than a geometric effect or amorphous/polycrystalline phase transition. In the case of quasi-BIC modes in the near-infrared, resonance wavelength could be adjusted from T = 350 °C to T = 550 °C without affecting the Q-factor considerably. Apart from the temperature-induced resonance trimming, large Q-factors can be attained at the highest analyzed temperature (T = 700 °C) in the near-infrared quasi-BIC modes. Resonance tailoring is just one of the possible applications of our results. We expect that our study is also insightful in the design of a-Si:H metasurfaces where large Q-factors are required at high temperatures.

Actively tunable graphene ribbon based multi-band THz polarizer with a high extinction ratio

An electrically tunable surface plasmon resonance based graphene ribbon (GR) terahertz (THz) polarizer with an adjustable operating frequency, high extinction ratio, and low insertion loss is reported here, and is simple and fabrication feasible. The proposed metasurface structure comprises a periodic array of graphene ribbons deposited on a quartz–silicon substrate. The operating frequency of the GR-polarizer can be tuned by varying the gap between GRs, GR pitch, GR width, and Fermi level in graphene. Beyond the available graphene-based polarizers, the proposed device exhibits a high extinction ratio (ER) of up to 75 dB with simultaneous insertion loss of ∼1.5dB at the optimized frequency of 1.69 THz. In addition, an average ER of ∼30dB with insertion loss of ∼2dB in the broad frequency range of 0.8–2.5 THz is demonstrated. Such metastructure polarizing devices, enriched with the nontrivial functionalities of graphene, would open up a fertile platform for designing a range of integrated photonic components for useful applications in THz optoelectronics, biomedical engineering, and microfluidics.

Gram-Scale Continuous Flow Synthesis of Silver-on-Silica Patchy Nanoparticles with Widely Tunable Resonances for Plasmonics Applications

Extensive research has been conducted on colloids that incorporate nanostructured noble metals, motivated in particular by their highly tunable optical properties. However, the lack of approaches that offer reproducibility, tunability, and scalable production is limiting their exploitation in many application areas. Here, we present an innovative process for the controlled formation of silver patches on silica nanospheres using gold nanocrystal seeds. The synthesis of the seeds and their attachment in very small numbers to the silica spheres is achieved without employing any surfactants, stabilizers, or linker molecules. Using advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques, we show that electroless deposition of nanostructured silver occurs at the introduced seeds and leads to a central protrusion from the metal patches not observed in earlier, seed-free work. We demonstrate that both seeding and growth processes can be achieved in millimixer flow reactors. With this simple and scalable approach, we provide compelling evidence for the use of seeds in producing targeted morphology and function. Specifically, patch size and optical properties can be tailored in a predictive manner by adjusting the density of seeds on the silica nanospheres as well as reagent concentrations during growth. As a result, our process can be used to obtain colloidal dispersions with localized surface plasmon resonance peaks anywhere in the range 400 to nearly 1300 nm. We confirm the scalability of our method by operating the growth process for around 70 min. Apart from changes in the first few minutes, the product properties remained rather stable and over a gram of high quality silver patch-coated silica could be recovered. Our approach opens up exciting new avenues for plasmonics applications, which typically require large amounts of nanoparticles with specifically designed optical properties. These include color and IR pigments, photocatalysts, and as light management components in optoelectronic devices like photovoltaic cells.

Tunable Fano resonance analysis in plasmonic waveguide side-coupled multiple Taiji resonators

In this paper, we first propose and analyze tunable Fano resonance based on indirect interaction between two Taiji resonators which both side-couple with a MIM (metal–insulator–metal) waveguide. An S-shaped branch waveguide embedded in the Taiji ring can tailor the propagating modes and then varying the number of whispering-gallery (WG) modes in the Taiji resonator, leading to the convenient tuning of Fano resonance lineshape. By covering monolayer graphene on the waveguide, Fano resonance lineshape can be all-optically tuned with relatively low pump intensity because of the optical Kerr effect of graphene; by coating UV-glue on the proposed structure, temperature sensing with high sensitivity of −0.23 nm/°C is obtained because of large negative thermo-optic coefficient of UV-glue. Furthermore, up to 16 Taiji resonators are designed and coupled with a common MIM waveguide to observe and analyze Fano lineshape variation, finally realizing the optical band-stop filter with maximal bandwidth of 49.5 nm and optical band-pass filter with maximal bandwidth of 45.3 nm. This ultra-compact micro-structure of plasmonic waveguide coupling multiple Taiji resonators demonstrates good potential applications in the nonlinear optics, optical modulation, and high-sensitivity biochemical sensors.

Tunable double split-ring resonator for quantum sensing using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

For quantum sensing based on nitrogen-vacancies (NV) ensembles, microwave antennas can couple the microwave field to the NV center, which leads it to becoming the core of spin manipulation and can directly affect the sensitivity of quantum sensing. The double split-ring resonator is a widely used microwave device for NV ensembles due to the advantages of high radiation efficiency and uniform magnetic field in millimeter-scale areas. But the bandwidth (30 MHz) is quite narrow which limits the application in quantum sensing with NV ensembles. Here, we experimentally achieve continuous tuning of the resonant frequency of the double split-ring resonator by changing the copper sheet position on the edge of the outer ring. The frequency tuning range can reach 80 MHz, up to 2-3 times the bandwidth, which can cover the transition of the electron spin under different magnetic field conditions. The performance of the tunable antenna in the quantum operation of NV centers is verified by optically detected magnetic resonance and Rabi oscillation. This tunable antenna is promising in the fabrication of integrated and arrayed quantum sensors based on NV ensembles.