Dichroism Values Research Articles

Tunable and strong circular dichroism metamaterial absorber based on gold-VO2 hybrid structure

The existing terahertz chiral absorber faces a series of issues, including low efficiency, un-tunable absorption, and complex structure. We present a chiral metamaterial absorber integrated with gold and phase-change material vanadium dioxide (VO2) to address the issues above. Our designed metamaterial absorber’s maximum circular dichroism (CD) value, as an ideal chirality-selective meta-absorber, reaches 0.95 when VO2 behaves as a metallic state. However, when VO2 is in the insulator state, the CD value is merely 0.003. Notably, the intrinsic mechanisms of the CD effect are revealed by analyzing the difference in electromagnetic response under left-handed circularly polarized (LCP) and right-handed circularly polarized (RCP) illumination. The designed chiral metamaterial absorber supports the free switching of the CD signal between ‘on’ and ‘off’ states by continuously adjusting the conductivity of VO2 with a CD value ranging from 0 to 0.95. Moreover, the absorption performance of chiral metamaterials is affected by geometric parameters and the angle of incidence. To evaluate the capability of chiral structure in biosensing, three typical avian influenza viruses are sensed by detecting changes in their resonant frequencies and CD values. Finally, the presented chiral-selective absorber with phase-change materials has an important reference value in the terahertz range for constructing chiral light detectors, chiral thermal switching, biosensors, and tunable chiral photonics.

Multifunctionality in vanadium dioxide-integrated metamaterials for switching between dual-band perfect absorption and asymmetric transmission

In this work, we present a theoretical proposal for an actively tunable metamaterial design that integrates vanadium dioxide (VO2). This VO2-integrated design demonstrates the ability to switch between dual-band perfect absorption and asymmetric transmission (AT) functionalities in the near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral ranges. By utilizing the unique properties of VO2, our proposed device achieves broadband absorption across approximately 2.47 μm with polarization independence when VO2 is in its metallic state. Furthermore, it exhibits narrowband absorption with polarization correlation, reaching a linear dichroism value of approximately 0.704. On the other hand, when VO2 is in its insulating state, the metamaterial structure realizes AT of 0.418 for circularly polarized light. We provide physical insight into the operating mechanisms through impedance matching analysis and electric field distributions. The integration of VO2 in this dynamically tunable, multifunctional metamaterial design offers a novel approach to developing reconfigurable nanophotonic and nanosystem technologies.

Controllable perfect chiral optical response in planar metasurfaces empowered by quasi-bound states in the continuum

Chiral metasurfaces with strong chirality and high quality factors (Q-factors) have become essential components for achieving strong light-matter interactions and have a wide range of applications in chiral lasers, detectors, etc. However, current schemes primarily focus on enhancing the chiral response and Q-factor, with limited consideration of their modulability and flexibility. In this paper, we present a chiral a-Si metasurface that can support multiple symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum (BIC). The perfect extrinsic and intrinsic chiral responses (circular dichroism exceeding 0.99), with ultra-high Q-factors, are achieved by utilizing quasi-BICs induced by illumination symmetry and in-plane symmetry breaking. The circular dichroism value and the transmittance of the two circular polarization states can be arbitrarily controlled by adjusting the structural parameters. Furthermore, the feasibility of achieving dynamic modulation of chiral response is demonstrated based on the a-Si-graphene hybrid metasurface. Our research offers an approach to the design of controllable planar optical chirality, which also provides promising avenues for applications in spin-selective bio-detection, electrically tunable chiral switching, and chiral lasers.

Giant Plasmonic Enhancement of Chiroptical Properties by Anisotropic Gold Nanocrystals Grown In Situ in a Chiral Polymer

AbstractPolymer‐based chiral materials with exceptional optical activity can dramatically impact integrated chiral photonics due to the tunability of their optical responses coupled with ease of fabrication. Realizing these applications requires increasing the absorbance dissymmetry factor. Here, in situ, the synthesis of gold nanostars is introduced in a chiral polymer medium to produce chiral polymer‐anisotropic plasmonic nanocrystal nanocomposites. The optimized nanocomposite shows a tenfold enhancement of dissymmetry factor, gabs (up to 0.64) and a corresponding 46‐fold augmented circular dichroism (CD) value upon annealing, relative to the annealed pure chiral polymer film. Moreover, the enhancement relative to the non‐annealed polymer‐gold nanostar nanocomposite is strikingly higher: a 35‐fold increase in gabs and a 4272‐fold increase in CD. Based on computational analysis, it is concluded that the local plasmon field enhancement around the crevices and tips of nanostars is mainly responsible for the observed effect which is further supported by a signal enhancement in Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS). Thus, this study underscores the significant role of close‐range plasmon interactions in altering the chiroptical response of nanocomposite materials and a practical pathway toward the realization of next‐generation integrated photonics and optoelectronic circuitry with photon spin control.

Characterization of polarization properties of colorectal cancer using decomposition Mueller matrix method

Rectal cancer is the third most prevalent cancer diagnosed and is traditionally screened using colonoscopy. Meanwhile, polarization characteristic measurement has emerged as an attractive alternative in recent years owing to its deep analysis of the structure of samples and non-invasive nature. Accordingly, this study employed the Mueller matrix decomposition method to measure the effective optical parameters of 100 slices from 20 healthy rectal tissue samples and 100 slices from 20 cancerous rectal tissue samples. The mean values and expression levels of the linear birefringence, circular birefringence, linear dichroism, circular dichroism, and depolarization index properties of the samples were compared using t-tests and ANOVA tests. The experimental results showed that the linear birefringence, orientation angle of linear dichroism, and values of linear dichroism and circular dichroism showed significant differences between the different tissue types. Thus, these parameters may serve as useful biomarkers for the diagnosis of rectal cancer.

Giant circular dichroism in all-dielectric planar chiral Meta-GMR

In this paper, we introduce a simplified approach involving a single-layer dielectric meta-surface on top of planar waveguide that can achieve a high circular dichroism (CD) value of 0.95 under normal incidence. Within this intrinsic chiral structure, we harness the distinctive characteristics of guided mode resonance (GMR) [1] to induce out-of-plane electric/magnetic field vectors during lateral light propagation, thereby enhancing its optical chirality. Notably, the enhanced CD value becomes prominent at a half-wave plate thickness. This meta-GMR design enables giant CD in both of reflection and transmission, offering promising applications in biosensing, especially for chiral molecules.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING HISTOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL-OPTICAL METHODS OF INVESTIGATING OF THE TIME OF HEMORRHAGE FORMATION IN THE SUBSTANCE OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

Important attention in forensic medical practice is given to the solution of issues that arise during the examination in thecase of traumatic brain injury (TBI), as this type of injury leads to high mortality and disability. Conducting an autopsy of thebody of the deceased, whose death occurred from a TBI, there are cases when the injury occurs as a result of a fall of a person who previously developed a cerebral infarction, and sometimes vice versa. In this case, it is important to accurately verify the primary cause of death, therefore, timely and objective determination of the time of formation of a hemorrhage in the human brain is necessary.The purpose and tasks of the research. To evaluate the possibility of detecting time of formation of a hemorrhage of traumatic and non-traumatic genesis by the generally accepted histological method and polarization phase microscopy, and to compare their eff ectiveness.Research materials and methods. For the study, human brain samples were selected from 140 deceased individuals whosedeaths occurred between 1 and 3 days after the onset of bleeding, according to medical records. As a control group, human brain samples were selected from 40 individuals who died of coronary heart disease. Light microscopy was performed by preliminary staining of histologic specimens according to the Perls method. Phase polarization tomography of the samples was performed using a Stokes polarimeter.Research results. Stained human brain preparations of the experimental and control groups were examined and analyzedand it was found that hemosiderin was not present in all experimental samples (only in 31 out of 40 samples were present). It was not possible to establish the corresponding time dependences of the age of the formation of hemorrhages, regardless of the genesis, since the random appearance of the pigment in the experimental samples is noted at diff erent time intervals. Analytical processing of the results of the statistical processing of the topographic structure of tomograms of the anisotropy of linear dichroism of the fi brillar networks of samples of the deceased from the experimental and control groups revealed a wider time range of sensitivity of this method to destructive changes in nervous tissue, in comparison with the polarimetric methods used in previous studies. As a result, there is an accelerated temporal decrease in the absolute values and the range of dispersion of the anisotropy of linear dichroism value with increasing time since the formation of hemorrhage.Conclusions. Polarization- phase microscopy has shown a signifi cant advantage in its use in comparison with the goldstandard – the Perls’ staining method for determining the time of hemorrhage formation in the human brain.

Maximal circular polarization isolation and asymmetric polarization conversion by chiral meta-structure

Chiral objects hold immense significance in modern optical technology, particularly due to their ability to manipulate circularly polarized waves. The chiroptical effects observed in naturally known chiral structures are typically very weak, however, the use of engineered meta-structures has proven to be highly effective in overcoming these shortcomings. Despite extensive research efforts, the construction of chiroptical phenomena approaching maximum performance has proven to be challenging, mostly due to the lack of optimal design choices and the existence of material losses. Here we present a metasurface constituting S-shaped building blocks capable of realizing virtually maximum chiroptical phenomena. The structure demonstrates nearly full polarization transmission, conversion to an opposite spin state, and reflection of the opposite spin state at a wavelength of 1549 nm. As a result, the maximum circular dichroism (CD) value reaches up to ≈1 (0.9993) for a given polarization state. Furthermore, reduced symmetry enables the one-way flow of a given polarization state resulting in about unity (0.998) asymmetric transmission (AT) value. Through rigorous numerical simulations, we elucidate the underlying principles driving these extraordinary optical properties. The CD and AT values are record-high demonstrated so far. The single-layer design offers an ultrathin profile, making it compatible with integrated photonics and providing opportunities for applications in compact, lightweight optical devices such as circular polarizers, half-wave plates, and self-polarizing reflectors.

Circularly Polarized Luminescence of Thiophene-Bridged Macrocyclic pseudo-meta [2.2]Paracyclophanes.

Chiral organic molecules possessing high quantum yields, circular dichroism, and circularly polarized luminescence values have great potential as optically active materials for future applications. Recently, the identification of a promising class of inherently chiral compounds was reported, namely macrocyclic 1,3-butadiyne-linked pseudo-meta[2.2]paracyclophanes, displaying high circular dichroism and related gabs values albeit modest quantum yields. Increasing the quantum yields in an attempt to get bright circularly polarized light emitters, the high-yielding heterocyclization of those 1,3-butadiyne bridges resulting in macrocyclic 2,5-thienyls-linked pseudo-meta [2.2]paracyclophanes is herein described. The chiroptical properties of both, the previously reported 1,3-butadiyne, and the novel 2,5-thienyl bridged macrocycles of various sizes, are experimentally recorded, and theoretically described using density-functional theory.

Strong chirality and asymmetric transmission effect in twisted bilayer α-MoO3 in terahertz band

Chirality and asymmetric transmission have wide-ranging applications in fields such as optics, chemical synthesis, pharmaceutical research, biological analysis, materials science and communication technology. In this work, we have demonstrated a terahertz (THz) device with strong chirality and asymmetric transmission effect based on a twisted bilayer α-MoO3. The unique optical response can be realized by adjusting structural parameters such as the thicknesses of the layers as well as the angle of relative rotation. It is found that the proposed structure achieves a giant circular dichroism (CD) value of 0.81 at 9.8 THz, which originates from the symmetry breaking of the structure. The phenomenon has been approved by the polarization conversion and the distributions of the electric field. In addition, the device exhibits the asymmetric transmission effect for circularly polarized wave incidence. The results show that the forward and backward transmissivity of circularly polarized waves with different handedness exhibit a significant difference of up to 0.55 at 9.2 THz. This work simultaneously achieves chirality and asymmetric transmission effect in the terahertz band, which paves the way for developing terahertz devices capable of chirality manipulation and optical isolation.

Terahertz broadband tunable chiral metamirror based on VO2-metal hybrid structure.

Aiming at the problems of narrow working bandwidth, low efficiency, and complex structure of existing terahertz chiral absorption, we propose a chiral metamirror composed of C-shaped metal split ring and L-shaped vanadium dioxide (VO2). This chiral metamirror is composed of three layers of structure, a gold substrate at the bottom, the first polyethylene cyclic olefin copolymer (Topas) dielectric layer and VO2-metal hybrid structure as the top. Our theoretical results led us to show that this chiral metamirror has a circular dichroism (CD) value greater than 0.9 at 5.70 to 8.55 THz and has a maximum value of 0.942 at f = 7.18 THz. In addition, by adjusting the conductivity of VO2, the CD value can be continuously adjustable from 0 to 0.942, which means that the proposed chiral metamirror supports the free switching of the CD response between the on and off states, and the CD modulation depth exceeds 0.99 in the range of 3 to 10 THz. Moreover, we discuss the influence of structural parameters and the change of incident angle on the performance of the metamirror. Finally, we believe that the proposed chiral metamirror has important reference value in the terahertz range for constructing chiral light detectors, CD metamirrors, switchable chiral absorbers and spin-related systems. This work will provide a new idea for improving the terahertz chiral metamirror operating bandwidth and promote the development of terahertz broadband tunable chiral optical devices.

Chiral Metasurface Vortex Focusing in Terahertz Band Based on Deep Learning

This work demonstrates an on-demand design approach to reverse the design of the chiral metasurface structure by the given target circular dichroism (CD) value, which is based on deep learning. A conditional generation network (RCGN) with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.027 was built in this work. Using this network, the metasurface structure with a CD up to 0.471 can be designed, verifying the validity and feasibility of the reverse metasurface design structure. At a frequency of 1.126 THz, the right-hand circularly polarised wave can be phase-modulated by Pancharatnam Berry (PB) to achieve the function of focusing the vortex beam of a metasurface array. The addition of the reverse design-on-demand feature based on deep learning makes the process of designing metasurface structures much faster and more accurate.

Stilbenoids and Flavonoids from Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. and Their α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities.

Two new stilbenoids, cajanstilbenoid C (1) and cajanstilbenoid D (2), together with eight other known stilbenoids (3-10) and seventeen known flavonoids (11-27), were isolated from the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate portions of the 95% ethanol extract of leaves of Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. The planar structures of the new compounds were elucidated by NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry, and their absolute configurations were determined by comparison of their experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) values. All the compounds were assayed for their inhibitory activities against yeast α-glucosidase. The results demonstrated that compounds 3, 8-9, 11, 13, 19-21, and 24-26 had strong inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase, with compound 11 (IC50 = 0.87 ± 0.05 μM) exhibiting the strongest activity. The structure-activity relationships were preliminarily summarized. Moreover, enzyme kinetics showed that compound 8 was a noncompetitive inhibitor, compounds 11, 24-26 were anticompetitive, and compounds 9 and 13 were mixed-competitive.

Chiral Metasurface for Near-Field Imaging and Far-Field Holography Based on Deep Learning

Chiral metasurfaces have great influence on the development of holography. Nonetheless, it is still challenging to design chiral metasurface structures on demand. As a machine learning method, deep learning has been applied to design metasurface in recent years. This work uses a deep neural network with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.03 to inverse design chiral metasurface. With the help of this approach, a chiral metasurface with circular dichroism (CD) values higher than 0.4 is designed. The static chirality of the metasurface and the hologram with an image distance of 3000 μm are characterized. The imaging results are clearly visible and demonstrate the feasibility of our inverse design approach.

The role of lateral substituent size in azobenzene chromophores on photo- and chiro-optical properties of photoactive polymethacrylates

Properties of functional liquid crystalline (LC) macromolecular materials, especially those showing self-organizing behaviour and targeted for specific purposes, strongly rely on the molecular structure of the mesogens used as side-chains. In order to get inside this relationship, new series of chiral LC polymethacrylates (PMA6Azo-R) with azobenzene groups having different lateral substituents (R), namely the methyl (-Me) and ethyl (-Et) groups on the central benzene ring, were synthesized and their comparative study was carried out. The synthesized polymers consist of photochromic azobenzene fragments that differ in the size of the lateral substituent (R = -H, -Me, -Et). All polymers exhibit the cholesteric phase, whereas the polymer without lateral alkyl group in addition forms the low-temperature SmĈ* phase. Investigations of the photoorientation process under linearly polarised visible light irradiation reveal that an increase in the size of side substituent considerably reduces the values of maximum achievable photoinduced dichroism (from 0.89 for PMA6Azo-H to 0.33 for PMA6Azo-Et that is associated with a decrease in the degree of mesogen anisometry). The effect of the lateral substituent size in azobenzene photochrome on the chiro-optical properties and mesomorphic behaviour of studied polymers was established. The presence of the lateral substituent in the photochrome/mesogen fragment leads to a significant decrease in isotropization temperature. Chiro-optical properties of the polymers and their photoswitching were studied, and it was found, that the introduction of the lateral substituent in the azobenzene fragment prevents the formation of exciton couples, that leads to a decrease in the circular dichroism (CD) values. UV irradiation and E-Z isomerisation of the azobenzene chromophores results in complete disappearance of CD signal; subsequent visible light irradiation does not lead to its full recovery. On the other hand, annealing of the films at temperatures higher than the glass transition almost fully recovers the initial CD values. The designed polymethacrylates can be considered as promising materials for various photonic applications.

Switchable Plasmonic Chirality for Light Modulation: From Near-Field to Far-Field Coupling.

This paper describes a quasi-planar chiral metamaterial of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tetramer arrays that support multiplasmon modes from a hybridization scheme to achieve significant chiroptical responses with the largest circular dichroism (CD) value of 42%. The chiroptical responses can be actively switched on and off by tuning the field coupling regime from near field to far field through the insulator (or spacer) thickness. Numerical calculations demonstrate that near-field coupling of the hybridized plasmons on the stacked metallic tetramers governs the chiroptical responses at small insulator thickness (tSiO2 < 160 nm). In contrast, far-field coupling of the plasmon radiations dominates at large spacing (tSiO2 > 160 nm) as phase retardation plays a crucial role. The quasi-planar chiral metamaterial with tunable plasmonic chirality enables efficient light modulation for polarization conversion: from circular to elliptical/linear polarization.

Dielectric chiral metasurfaces for enhanced circular dichroism spectroscopy at near infrared regime.

Numerous applications of chiro-optical effects can be found in nanophotonics, including imaging and spin-selective absorption, particularly in sensing for separating and detecting chiral enantiomers. Flat single-layer metasurfaces composed of chiral or achiral sub-wavelength structures offer unique properties to manipulate the light due to their extraordinary light-matter interaction. However, at optical wavelengths, the generation of strong chirality is found to be challenging via conventional chiral metasurface approaches. This work intends to design and optimize a dielectric chiral meta-nano-surface based on a diatomic design strategy to comprehend giant chiro-optical effects in the near-infrared (NIR) regime for potential application in circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Instead of using a single chiral structure that limits the CD value at optical wavelengths, the proposed metasurface used a diatomic (two meta-atoms with distinct geometric parameters) chiral structure as a building block to significantly enhance the chiro-optical effect. Combining both meta-atoms in a single periodicity of the building block introduces constructive and destructive interferences to attain the maximum circular dichroism value exceeding 75%. Moreover, using multipolar resonance theory, the physics behind the generation of giant chiro-optical effects have also been investigated. The proposed dielectric chiral meta-platform based on the extra degree of freedom can find application in compact integrated optical setups for CD spectroscopy, enantiomer separation and detection, spin-dependent color filters, and beam splitters.

Lignans and Flavonoids from Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. and Their α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities.

A pair of new lignan conformers (1-2), one new flavonoid glycoside (3), as well as nineteen known compounds were purified from the twigs and leaves of Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.. The planar structures of the unknown compounds were determined via NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry, while their absolute configurations were elucidated via comparison between their experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) values. All the isolated compounds were assayed for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. The results demonstrated that compounds 8-12, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22 had strong inhibition activities, with compound 10 (IC50 =0.4±0.21 μM) most active. The structure-activity relationships were preliminarily summarized. Enzyme kinetics showed that compounds 8, 9, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22 were non-competitive inhibitors and compounds 10-12 were anti-competitive ones.

Intelligent design of the chiral metasurfaces for flexible targets: combining a deep neural network with a policy proximal optimization algorithm.

Recently, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for metasurface design has received increased attention for its excellent decision-making ability in complex problems. However, time-consuming numerical simulation has hindered the adoption of DRL-based design method. Here we apply the Deep learning-based virtual Environment Proximal Policy Optimization (DE-PPO) method to design the 3D chiral plasmonic metasurfaces for flexible targets and model the metasurface design process as a Markov decision process to help the training. A well trained DRL agent designs chiral metasurfaces that exhibit the optimal absolute circular dichroism value (typically, ∼ 0.4) at various target wavelengths such as 930 nm, 1000 nm, 1035 nm, and 1100 nm with great time efficiency. Besides, the training process of the PPO agent is exceptionally fast with the help of the deep neural network (DNN) auxiliary virtual environment. Also, this method changes all variable parameters of nanostructures simultaneously, reducing the size of the action vector and thus the output size of the DNN. Our proposed approach could find applications in efficient and intelligent design of nanophotonic devices.

Magnetic Control of the Plasmonic Chirality in Gold Helicoids.

Chiral plasmonic nanostructures have facilitated a promising method for manipulating the polarization state of light. While a precise structural modification at the nanometer-scale-level could offer chiroptic responses at various wavelength ranges, a system that allows fast response control of a given structure has been required. In this study, we constructed uniformly arranged chiral gold helicoids with cobalt thin-film deposition that exhibited a strong chiroptic response with magnetic controllability. Tunable circular dichroism (CD) values from 0.9° to 1.5° at 550 nm wavelength were achieved by reversing the magnetic field direction. In addition, a magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) study revealed that the gap structure and size-related surface plasmon resonance induced MCD peaks. We demonstrated the transmitted color modulation, where the color dynamically changed from green-to-red, by controlling the field strength and polarizer axis. We believe current work broadens our understanding of magnetoplasmonic nanostructure and expands its potential applicability in optoelectronics or optical-communications.