Engineering Topology of Photonic Systems for Sustainable Molecular Structure: Autopoiesis Systems

This paper introduces topological order in descried social systems starting with the original concept of autopoiesis by biologists and scientists, including the modification of general systems based on socialized medicine. Topological order is important in describing the physical systems for exploiting optical systems and improving photonic devices. The stats of topologically order have some interesting properties of topological degeneracy and fractional statistics that reveal the entanglement origin of topological order, etc. Topological ideas in photonics form exciting developments in solid-state materials, that being; insulating in the bulk, conducting electricity on their surface without dissipation or back-scattering, even in the presence of large impurities. A specific type of autopoiesis system is interrelated to the main categories amongst existing groups of the ecological phenomena interaction social and medical sciences. The hypothesis, nevertheless, has a nonlinear interaction with its natural environment ‘interactional cycle’ for exchange photon energy with molecules without changes in topology (i.e., chemical transformation into products do not propagate any changes or variation in the network topology of physical configuration). The engineering topology of a biosensor is based on the excitation boundary of surface electromagnetic waves in photonic band gap multilayer films. The device operation is similar to surface Plasmonic biosensors in which a photonic band gap film replaces metal film as the medium when surface electromagnetic waves are excited. The use of photonic band gap film offers sharper surface wave resonance leading to the potential of greatly enhanced sensitivity. So, the properties of the photonic band gap material are engineered to operate a sensor at any wavelength and conduct a surface wave resonance that ranges up to 470 nm. The wavelength is not generally accessible with surface Plasmon sensing. Lastly, the photonic band gap films have robust mechanical functions that offer new substrates for surface chemistry to understand the molecular design structure, and create sensing chips surface with different concentrations of DNA sequences in the solution to observe and track the surface mode resonance under the influences of processes that take place in the spectroscopic environment. These processes led to the development of several advanced analytical technologies, which are automated, real-time, reliable, reproducible and cost-effective. This results in faster and more accurate monitoring and detection of biomolecules on refractive index sensing, antibody–antigen reactions with a DNA or protein binding. Ultimately, the controversial aspect of molecular frictional properties is adjusted to each other in order to form unique spatial structure and dynamics of biological molecules for providing the environment mutual contribution in investigation of changes due the pathogenic archival architecture of cell clusters.

Introduction to Electron Spectroscopy for Surfaces Characterization

Spectroscopy is the study of the spectrum produced by the radiation-matter interaction which requires the study of electromagnetic radiation (or electrons) emitted, absorbed, or scattered by matter. Thus, the spectral analysis is using spectrometers which enables us to obtain curves that express the distribution of the energy emitted (spectrum). Analysis of emission spectra can therefore constitute several methods depending on the range of radiation energy. The most common methods used are Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and Electron Energy Losses Spectroscopy (EELS), which allow the determination of the atomic structure on the surface. This paper focalized essentially on the Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy.

Detailed Sensitive Detection of Impurities in Waste Engine Oils Using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, Rotating Disk Electrode Optical Emission Spectroscopy and Surface Plasmon Resonance

The laser based high resolution spectroscopic experimental techniques such as Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Rotating Disk Electrode Optical Emission spectroscopy (RDE-OES) and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) have been used for the study of composition and degradation analysis of used engine oils. Engine oils are mainly composed of aliphatic and aromatics compounds and its soot contains hazardous components in the form of fine, coarse and ultrafine particles consisting of wear metal elements. Such coarse particulates matter (PM) and toxic elements are extremely dangerous for human health that can cause respiratory and genetic disorder in humans. The combustible soot from thermal power plants, industry, aircrafts, ships and vehicles can lead to the environmental and climate destabilization. It contributes towards global pollution for land, water, air and global warming for environment. The detection of such toxicants in the form of elemental analysis is a very serious issue for the waste material management of various organic, inorganic hydrocarbons and radioactive waste elements. In view of such important points, the current study on used engine oils was performed. The fundamental characterization of engine oils was conducted by measuring water content and kinematic viscosity test that proves the crude analysis of the degradation of used engine oils samples. The microscopic quantitative and qualitative analysis was presented by RDE-OES technique which confirms the presence of elemental impurities of Pb, Al, Cu, Si, Fe, Cr, Na and Ba lines for used waste engine oil samples in few ppm. The presence of such elemental impurities was confirmed by LIBS spectral analysis at various transition levels of atomic line. The recorded transition line of Pb confirms the maximum degradation which was found in used engine oil sample no. 3 and 4. Apart from the basic tests, the calculations for dielectric constants and refractive index of the engine oils were performed via SPR analysis.

Microfluidic Plasmonic Bio-Sensing of Exosomes by Using a Gold Nano-Island Platform

A bio-sensing method, based on the plasmonic property of gold nano-islands, has been developed for detection of exosomes in a clinical setting. The position of the gold plasmon band in the UV-Visible spectrum depends on the size and shape of gold nanoparticles as well as on the surrounding environment. By adsorbing various chemical entities, or binding them, the gold plasmon band will shift toward longer wavelengths and the shift is proportional to the concentration. Exosomes transport cargoes of molecules and genetic materials to proximal and distal cells. Presently, the standard method for their isolation and quantification from body fluids is by ultracentrifugation, not a practical method to be implemented in a clinical setting. Thus, a versatile and cutting-edge platform is required to selectively detect and isolate exosomes for further analysis at clinical level. The new sensing protocol, instead of antibodies, makes use of a specially synthesized polypeptide (Vn96), to capture and quantify the exosomes from different media, by binding the heat shock proteins from exosomes. The protocol has been established and optimized by using a glass substrate, in order to facilitate the next stage, namely the transfer of the protocol to a microfluidic environment. After each step of the protocol, the UV-Vis spectrum was recorded and the position of gold Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) band was measured. The sensing process was modelled, taking into account the characteristics of the nano-island structure, prepared by thermal convection and annealing. The optimal molar ratios of the most important chemical entities, involved in the detection of exosomes were calculated as well. Indeed, it was found that the results of the sensing process depend on the two major steps: the molar ratios of streptavidin to biotin-PEG-Vn96 and, the final step, the capture of exosomes by the biotin-PEG-Vn96 complex. The microfluidic device designed for sensing of exosomes consists of a glass substrate, sealed by a PDMS layer that contains the channel and a collecting chamber. In the device, the solutions of linker, cross-linker, etc., are pumped over the gold nano-islands and an Ocean Optics spectrometer is used to measure the position of the Au plasmon band at each step of the sensing. The experiments have shown that the shift of the Au LSPR band is proportional to the concentration of exosomes and, thereby, exosomes can be accurately quantified. An important advantage of the method is the ability to discriminate between exosomes having different origins.

Enhancement of Raman Scattering using Photonic Nanojet and Whispering Gallery Mode of a Dielectric Microstructure

We report the enhancement of Raman scattering signal by one order of magnitude using photonic nanojet (PNJ) of a lollipop shaped dielectric microstructure (LSDM) fabricated by a pulsed CO₂ laser. Here, the PNJ is generated by illuminating sphere portion of the LSDM with non-resonant laser. Unlike the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique, this technique is simple, and the obtained results are highly reproducible. In addition, an efficient technique is proposed to enhance the SERS signal with the help of high quality factor optical resonance (whispering gallery mode) of a LSDM. From the theoretical simulations, it has been found that at least an order of magnitude enhancement in the SERS signal could be achieved easily using the proposed technique. We strongly believe that this report will enable the research community for improving the Raman scattering signals.

Planar Plasmonic Terahertz Waveguides for Sensor Applications

We investigate sensing capabilities of a planar plasmonic THz waveguide. The waveguide is comprised of one dimensional array of periodically arranged sub wavelength scale corrugations in the form of rectangular dimples in order to ensure the plasmonic response. The THz waveguide transmission is observed for polyimide (as thin film) substance filling the dimples. The refractive index of the polyimide film is varied to examine various sensing parameters such as frequency shift, sensitivity and Figure of Merit (FoM) of the fundamental plasmonic resonance supported by the waveguide. In efforts to improve sensing characteristics, we also examine sensing capabilities of a plasmonic waveguide having V shaped corrugations and compare results with that of rectangular dimples. The proposed study could be significant in developing new terahertz sensors with improved sensitivity utilizing the plasmonic waveguides.

Numerical Analysis and Design of Dielectric to Plasmonic Waveguides Couplers

In this work, efficient directional coupler composed of dielectric waveguides and metallic film has been analyzed in details by simulations using finite element method (FEM). The structure consists of a step-index fiber with dielectric core, silica cladding, and a metal nanowire parallel to the core. The results show that an efficient conversion of optical dielectric modes to long range plasmonic is possible. Low insertion losses in conjunction with short coupling length and a broadband operation can be achieved under certain conditions. This kind of couplers has potential applications for the design of photonic integrated circuits for signal routing between dielectric/plasmonic waveguides, sensing, lithography, and optical storage systems. A high efficient focusing of light in a very small region can be obtained.

Equations of Pulse Propagation in Three-Layer Structure of As2S3 Chalcogenide Plasmonic Nano-Waveguides

This research aims at obtaining the equations of pulse propagation in nonlinear plasmonic waveguides created with As2S3 chalcogenide materials. Via utilizing Helmholtz equation and first-order perturbation theory, two components of electric field are determined within frequency domain. Afterwards, the equations are formulated in time domain. The obtained equations include two coupled differential equations that considers nonlinear dispersion.

Modeling and Simulations of Surface Plasmon Waveguide Structures

This paper presents an investigation of the fabrication of the optical devices in terms of their characteristics based on the use of the electromagnetic waves. Planar waveguides are used to examine the field modes (bound modes) and the parameters required for this structure. The modifications are conducted on surface plasmons based waveguides. Simple symmetric dielectric slab structure is used and analyzed in terms of transverse electric mode (TE-Mode) and transverse magnetic mode (TM-Mode. The paper presents mathematical and numerical solutions for solving simple symmetric plasmons and provides simulations of surface plasmons for field confinement. Asymmetric TM-mode calculations for dielectric surface plasmons are also provided.

Two-Photon Ionization of Silver Clusters

In this paper, we calculate the two-photon ionization (TPI) cross-section for pump-probe scheme in Ag neutral cluster. The pump photon energy is assumed to be close to the surface plasmon (SP) energy of cluster in dielectric media. Due to this choice, the pump wave excites collective oscillations of electrons-SP and the probe wave causes ionization of the cluster. Since the interband transition energy in Ag exceeds the SP resonance energy, the main contribution into the TPI comes from the latter. The advantage of Ag clusters as compared to the other noble metals is that the SP resonance in silver cluster is much sharper because of peculiarities of its dielectric function. The calculations are performed by separating the coordinates of electrons corresponding to the collective oscillations and the individual motion that allows taking into account the resonance contribution of excited SP oscillations. It is shown that the ionization cross section increases by two orders of magnitude if the energy of the pump photon matches the surface plasmon energy in the cluster.

Relaxation Dynamics of Quantum Emitters Resonantly Coupled to a Localized Surface Plasmon

We investigate relaxation dynamics of a quantum dipole emitter (QDE), e.g., a molecule or quantum dot, located near a metal nanoparticle (MNP) exhibiting a dipolar localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance at the frequency of the QDE radiative transition. It is shown that under the condition of the QDE-MNP characteristic relaxation time being much shorter than that of the QDE in free-space but much longer than the LSP lifetime. It is also shown that energy dissipation in the QDE-MNP system is relatively weak with the probability of the photon emission being about 0.75, a number which, rather surprisingly, does not explicitly depend on the metal absorption characteristics. The degree of entanglement measured by the concurrency takes the maximum value, while the distances between the QDEs and metal ball approximately are equal.

High Gain Broadband Plasmonic Slot Nano-Antenna

High gain broadband plasmonic slot nano-antenna has been considered. The theory of plasmonic slot nano-antenna (PSNA) has been developed. The analytical model takes into account also the electrical field inside the metal due to imperfectness of metal in optical range, as well as numerical investigation based on finite element method (FEM) has been realized. It should be mentioned that Yagi-Uda configuration improves directivity in the plane of structure. In contrast, in this paper the possibility of directivity improvement of proposed PSNA in perpendicular plane of structure by using reflection metallic surface placed under the slot in fixed distance has been demonstrated. It is well known that a directivity improvement brings to the antenna gain increasing. This method of diagram improving is also well known from RF antenna design theory. Moreover the improvement of directivity in the perpendicular plane gives more flexibility in such application as improving the light and atom, ion, molecule interactions by using such type of plasmonic slot antenna. By the analogy of dipole type optical antennas the widening of working wavelengths has been realized by using bowtie geometry of slots, which made the antenna broadband.

Silver Nanoparticles-Enhanced Luminescence Spectra of Silicon Nanocrystals

Metal-enhanced Luminescence of silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) was determined using two different particle sizes of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). SiNCs have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is found that the SiNCs are crystalline with an average diameter of 65 nm and FCC lattice. AgNPs were synthesized using photochemical reduction of AgNO3 with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The enhanced luminescence of SiNCs by AgNPs was evaluated by confocal Raman microspectroscopy. Enhancement up to x9 and x3 times were observed for SiNCs that mixed with AgNPs which have an average particle size of 100 nm and 30 nm, respectively. Silver NPs-enhanced luminescence of SiNCs occurs as a result of the coupling between the excitation laser light and the plasmon bands of AgNPs; thus this intense field at AgNPs surface couples strongly to SiNCs.

Light Emission Enhancement of Silicon Nanocrystals by Gold Layer

A thin gold metal layer was deposited on the top of silicon oxide films containing embedded Si nanocrystals (Si-nc). The sample was annealed in a gas containing nitrogen, and subsequently characterized by photoluminescence. We obtained 3-fold enhancement of photon emission from the Si-nc embedded in silicon dioxide covered with a Gold layer as compared with an uncovered sample. We attribute this enhancement to the increase of the spontaneous emission rate caused by the coupling of the Si-nc emitters with the surface plasmons (SP). The evolution of PL emission with laser irradiated time was also collected from covered samples, and compared to that from uncovered samples. In an uncovered sample, the PL intensity decreases with time, approximately with two decay constants. Although the decrease of the initial PL intensity associated with the increase of sample temperature under CW pumping is still observed in samples covered with a gold layer, this film significantly contributes to reduce the permanent deterioration of the PL intensity. The resistance to degradation of light-emitting silicon nanocrystals can be increased by SP coupling to suppress the permanent deterioration. Controlling the permanent photodeterioration can allow to perform a reliable optical gain measurement.

Multifunctional Cell Processing with Plasmonic Nanobubbles

Cell processing techniques for gene and cell therapies use several separate procedures for gene transfer and cell separation or elimination, because no current technology can offer simultaneous multi-functional processing of specific cell sub-sets in heterogeneous cell systems. Using our novel on-demand nonstationary intracellular events instead of permanent materials, plasmonic nanobubbles, generated with a short laser pulse only in target cells, we achieved simultaneous multifunctional cell-specific processing with the rate up to 50 million cells per minute.

Design of One – Dimensional Tungsten Gratings for Thermophotovoltaic Emitters

In this paper, a one - dimensional microstructure tungsten grating (pyramids) is optimized for potential application as thermophotovoltaic (TPV) emitter. The influence of gratings geometric parameters on the spectral emittance are studied by using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA).The results show that the spectral emittance is affected by the gratings geometrical parameters. The optimum parameters are grating period of 0.5µm, a filling ratio of 0.8 and grating height of h=0.2µm. A broad peak of high emittance is obtained at wavelengths between 0.5 and 1.8µm. The emittance drops below 0.2 at wavelengths above 1.8µm. This can be explained by the surface plasmon polaritons excitation coupled with the grating microstructures. At longer wavelengths, the emittance remains low and this is highly desired for thermophotovoltaic applications to reduce the thermal leakage due to low-energy photons that do not produce any photocurrent. The proposed structure can be used as a selective emitter for a narrow band gap cell such as GaSb. The performance of this simple 1-D emitter proved to be superior to that from more complicated structures. Almost all the radiation from the emitter incident, at angles up to 40°, on the cell, could be utilized to produce a photocurrent. There is no need for a filter.

CMOS-Compatible Plasmonic Nanocircuits for On-Chip Integration

Silicon photonics is merging as a unified platform for driving photonic based telecommunications and for local photonic based interconnect but it suffers from large footprint as compared with the nanoelectronics. Plasmonics is an attractive alternative for nanophotonics. In this work, two CMOS compatible plasmonic waveguide platforms are compared. One is the horizontal metal-insulator-Si-insulator-metal nanoplasmonic waveguide and the other is metal-insulator-Si hybrid plasmonic waveguide. Various passive and active photonic devices have been experimentally demonstrated based on these two plasmonic waveguide platforms.

Effect of Silver Nanoparticles Size Prepared by Photoreduction Method on Optical Absorption Spectra of TiO2/Ag/N719 Dye Composite Films

TiO2/Ag composite films were prepared by incorporating Ag in the pores of mesoporous TiO2 films using a photoreduction method. The Ag nanoparticle sizes were in a range of 3.66-38.56 nm. The TiO2/Ag composite films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscropy (TEM). The TiO2 films and TiO2/Ag composite films were immersed in a 0.3 mM N719 dye solution and characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The TiO2/Ag/N719 composite film showed that an optimal size of Ag nanoparticles was 19.12 nm and, hence, gave the maximum optical absorption spectra. The improved absorption was due to surface plasmon resonance induced by the Ag nanoparticles to enhance the absorption coefficient of the dye.

MAS Simulations of Optical Antenna Structures

A semi-analytic boundary discretization method, the Method of Auxiliary Sources (MAS) is used to analyze Optical Antennas consisting of metallic parts. In addition to standard dipoletype antennas, consisting of two pieces of metal, a new structure consisting of a single metal piece with a tiny groove in the center is analyzed. It is demonstrated that difficult numerical problems are caused because optical antennas exhibit strong material dispersion, loss, and plasmon-polariton effects that require a very accurate numerical simulation. This structure takes advantage of the Channel Plasmon-Polariton (CPP) effect and exhibits a strong enhancement of the electric field in the groove. Also primitive 3D antenna model with spherical nano particles is analyzed.

Field Investigation on Modification of Japanese Cedar Pollen Allergen in Urban Air-Polluted Area

Cry j 1 is a causative substance of Japanese cedar pollinosis, and it may deteriorate by Cry j 1 invasion to a lower respiratory tract. We observed airborne particles containing Cry j 1 by an immunofluorescence technique using a fluorescence microscope, and we clarified that Cry j 1 exist as aggregates of airborne fine particles (< 1.1 μm) in the urban atmosphere. Airborne Cry j 1 may react with air pollutants and be denature to a substance deteriorated Japanese cedar pollinosis. Therefore, we applied a sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to evaluate a Cry j 1 reacted with various air pollutants by liquid phase reaction, and calculated kinetics constants of Cry j 1 extracted from pollens collected in various sites and airborne fine particles containing Cry j 1 by using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method. As a result, it is suggested that Cry j 1 may be denatured by air pollutants during the transportation to the urban atmosphere.