Plasmon-Assisted Direction- and Polarization-Sensitive Organic Thin-Film Detector

Observation of Plasmonics Talbot effect in graphene nanostructures

We report on the theoretical models of the plasmoincs Talbot effect in graphene nanostructure. The Talbot effect for the plasmonics applications in the IR range is theoretically studied and the respective Talbot effect for the novel advanced plasmonics structures are numerically investigated for the first time. It is shown that the metamaterial structures with periodic grating configuration represents a complex three-dimensional lattice of beamlet-like graphene plasmonics devices. The calculated results agree well with the experimental ones. The results obtained can be used to create and optimize the structures considering diffraction limit for a wide range of application areas. Effective focusing of plasmonic waves with exact focal spots and a subwavelength full width at half maximum can be obtained by using periodic graphene grating.

A novel frequency-dependent lattice Boltzmann model with a single force term for electromagnetic wave propagation in dispersive media

Electromagnetic wave simulation is of pivotal importance in the design and implementation of photonic nano-structures. In this study, we developed a lattice Boltzmann model with a single extended force term (LBM-SEF) to simulate the propagation of electromagnetic waves in dispersive media. By reconstructing the solution of the macroscopic Maxwell equations using the lattice Boltzmann equation, the final form only involves an equilibrium term and a non-equilibrium force term. The two terms are evaluated using the macroscopic electromagnetic variables and the dispersive effect, respectively. The LBM-SEF scheme is capable of directly tracking the evolution of macroscopic electromagnetic variables, leading to lower virtual memory requirement and facilitating the implementation of physical boundary conditions. The mathematical consistency of the LBM-SEF with the Maxwell equations was validated by using the Champman-Enskog expansion; while three practical models were used to benchmark the numerical accuracy, stability, and flexibility of the proposed method.

Optical-fibre characteristics based on Fano resonances and sensor application in blood glucose detection

We propose an optical-fibre metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic sensor based on the Fano resonances of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Its structure consists of a coupling fibre that connects C-shaped and rectangular cavities and a main fibre that contains a semi-circular resonator. When incident light passes through the main fibre, it excites SPPs along the interface between the metal and medium. The SPPs at the resonator induce Fano resonances, owing to the coupling effect. The results show that the designed optical-fibre MIM plasmonic sensor could flexibly tune the number of Fano resonances by adjusting the structure and geometric parameters to optimise the sensing performance. The full width at half maximum of the Lorentzian resonance spectra formed by the electric and magnetic fields reached 23 nm and 24 nm, respectively. The wavelength of the Fano resonance shifted as the refractive index changed; thus, the proposed sensor could realise the application of sensing and detection. The highest sensitivity achieved by the sensor was 1770 nm/RIU. Finally, we simulated the designed sensor to human blood-glucose-level detection, and observed that the resonance wavelength would increase with the increase of glucose concentration. Our study shows that optical fibres have broad application prospects in the field of electromagnetic switching and sensing.

A New Lattice Boltzmann Scheme for Photonic Bandgap and Defect Mode Simulation in One-Dimensional Plasma Photonic Crystals

A novel lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with a pseudo-equilibrium potential is proposed for electromagnetic wave propagation in one-dimensional (1D) plasma photonic crystals. The final form of the LBM incorporates the dispersive effect of plasma media with a pseudo-equilibrium potential in the equilibrium distribution functions. The consistency between the proposed lattice Boltzmann scheme and Maxwell’s equations was rigorously proven based on the Chapman–Enskog expansion technique. Based on the proposed LBM scheme, we investigated the effects of the thickness and relative dielectric constant of a defect layer on the EM wave propagation and defect modes of 1D plasma photonic crystals. We have illustrated that several defect modes can be tuned to appear within the photonic bandgaps. Both the frequency and number of the defect modes could be tuned by changing the relative dielectric constant and thickness of the defect modes. These strategies would assist in the design of narrowband filters.

A Novel Lattice Boltzmann Scheme with Single Extended Force Term for Electromagnetic Wave Propagating in One-Dimensional Plasma Medium

A one-dimensional plasma medium is playing a crucial role in modern sensing device design, which can benefit significantly from numerical electromagnetic wave simulation. In this study, we introduce a novel lattice Boltzmann scheme with a single extended force term for electromagnetic wave propagation in a one-dimensional plasma medium. This method is developed by reconstructing the solution to the macroscopic Maxwell’s equations recovered from the lattice Boltzmann equation. The final formulation of the lattice Boltzmann scheme involves only the equilibrium and one non-equilibrium force term. Among them, the former is calculated from the macroscopic electromagnetic variables, and the latter is evaluated from the dispersive effect. Thus, the proposed lattice Boltzmann scheme directly tracks the evolution of macroscopic electromagnetic variables, which yields lower memory costs and facilitates the implementation of physical boundary conditions. Detailed conduction is carried out based on the Chapman–Enskog expansion technique to prove the mathematical consistency between the proposed lattice Boltzmann scheme and Maxwell’s equations. Based on the proposed method, we present electromagnetic pulse propagating behaviors in nondispersive media and the response of a one-dimensional plasma slab to incident electromagnetic waves that span regions above and below the plasma frequency ωp, and further investigate the optical properties of a one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal with periodic thin layers of plasma with different layer thicknesses to verify the stability, accuracy, and flexibility of the proposed method.