Abstract:In this paper, for improving the photocatalytic efficiency of titania (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs), AgAu alloy-TiO2 core-shell NPs are fabricated via a sol-gel (SG) process in the presence of AgAu alloy NPs with block copolymer shells as templates. The photocatalytic activities of the AgAu-TiO2 NPs on the photodecomposition of methylene blue (MB) are investigated. The AgAu-TiO2 composite NPs coated with 5.0% titania related to block copolymers show higher photocatalytic activity than the other samples in which the titania contents are larger than 5.0%. The results indicate that the increase of the thickness of the TiO2 shell leads to the decrease of the photocatalytic activity.

Abstract:Bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) with morphology of squared-like nanosheet is synthesized by solvothermal method using ethylene glycol aqueous reaction solution. The product is characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) diffuse reflection spectroscopy, respectively. The layered structure, the hydrogen bonding between hydroxyl groups and their selective adsorption cause the formation of the squared-like nanosheets. The photocatalytic degradation activity of the as-prepared BiOCl is tested by the degradation of methyl orange under UV light irradiation. Repeating the degradation process four times under the same condition, the results show that the squared-like BiOCl nanosheets present high photocatalytic activity and stability.

Abstract:We present a novel electrochemical technique for the fabrication of nano-photonic crystal structures. Based on a specially designed electrolyte, porous silicon (PSi) layers with different porosities are possible to be produced on highly-doped n-type silicon substrate by varying the applied current density which determines the size and the morphology of pores. By applying an alternative current density modulation during anodization, porous silicon photonic crystals are obtained using HF-containing electrolyte without oxidizing components. The current burst model (CBM) is employed to interpret the mechanism of the formation of the macropore porous silicon.

Abstract:The optical metal nanoantenna on thin film solar cell is effective to enhance light absorption. In this paper, the diamond-type Ag nanoantenna arrays are proposed for increasing the efficiency of solar cells by localized surface plasmons resonance (LSPR). The effect of metal nanoantenna on the absorption enhancement is theoretically investigated by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. Broadband absorption enhancements in both visible and near-infrared regions are demonstrated in case of solar cell with diamond-type Ag nanoantennas. The spectral response is manipulated by geometrical parameters of the nanoantennas. The maximum enhancement factor of 1.51 for solar cell is obtained. For comparison, the other three nanoantennas are also analyzed. The results show that the solar cell with optimized diamond-type nanoantenna arrays is more efficient in optical absorption.

Abstract:A thermally tunable terahertz metamaterial absorber (MA) with InSb embedded in a metal-dielectric-metal structure is proposed. The transmission and tuning properties of the proposed metamaterial absorber are analyzed for the temperature ranging from 160 K to 350 K. The simulated results show that the maximum absorption of the absorber is nearly 99.8% at a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 38 GHz, and the absorption frequency can be dynamically tuned from 0.82 THz to 1.02 THz.

Abstract:High luminous efficiency and high color rendering index (CRI) are both the foremost factors for white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) to serve as next generation solid-state lighting sources. In this paper, we show that both luminous efficiency and CRI can be improved by adjusting the green/red spectra of WOLEDs. With green emission spectra matching with the human photopic curve, the WOLEDs exhibit higher luminous efficiency and higher CRI. Theoretical calculation shows that by tuning the white emission spectra to maximally match with the human photopic curve, the luminous efficiency can be improved by 41.8% without altering the color coordinates, the color correlated temperature (CCT) and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the WOLEDs.

Abstract:A new single-mode optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with three coupled cavities is proposed and demonstrated. A Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity fiber laser and an optical-electrical feedback branch are coupled together to construct an optoelectronic oscillator, where the F-P cavity fiber laser serves as a light source, and a modulator is placed in the laser cavity to implement reciprocating modulation, which simultaneously splits the laser cavity into two parts and forms a dual-loop configuration. To complete an optoelectronic oscillator, part of optical signal is output from the F-P cavity to implement the feedback modulation, which constructs the third cavity. Since only the oscillation signal satisfies the requirements of all the three cavities, a single-mode oscillation can be finally achieved. Three resonant cavities are successfully designed without adding more optoelectronic devices, and the side-modes can be well suppressed with low cost. The oscillation condition is theoretically analyzed. In the experimental demonstration, a 20 GHz single longitudinal mode microwave signal is successfully obtained.

Abstract:The output characteristics of neodymium-doped gadolinium vanadate (Nd:GdVO4) crystals laser with dual c-axis orthogonal gains end-pumped by two fiber-coupled diode lasers are investigated. With two 1 W semiconductor diode lasers pumping, the output power of TEM00 laser is 920 mW, and the optical conversion efficiency is close to 46%. By changing the relative orientations of both Nd:GdVO4 crystals, the polarization characteristics of laser are varied. In particular, by keeping the c-axes of two Nd:GdVO4 crystals orthogonal to each other and adjusting two diode pump lasers to operate at the same power level, the completely unpolarized light is obtained.

Abstract:In this paper, we present the design, simulation, fabrication and characterization of a terahertz (THz) filter based on metamaterial consisting of the periodical double symmetric splits ring resonator (DS-SRR) array. We can observe that the metamaterial-based filter possesses a band-pass transmission when the electrical field is along y direction, and it possesses a low-pass transmission when the electrical field is along x direction. Our results demonstrate that the proposed filter can realize the switching between band-pass effect and low-pass effect by only changing the polarization direction of the incident electromagnetic wave. Moreover, the calculated surface current distributions are also used to analyze the switchable mechanism of the THz metamatrial filter. Therefore, the proposed THz wave filter has a potential application in THz wave communication systems.

Abstract:Eight-port optical routers are widely used in cluster-mesh photonic networks-on-chip (NoC). By using 24 groups of cross-coupling two-ring resonators, a 1-stage 8-port polymer optical router is proposed, which can optically route 7 channel wavelength data streams along definite path in two-dimensional (2D) plane. Under the selected 7 channel wavelengths, the insertion losses along all routing paths are within 0.02-0.58 dB, the maximum crosstalk of all routing operations is less than -39 dB, and the device footprint size is about 0.79 mm2. Then, a universal novel structure and routing scheme of N-stage cascaded 8-port optical router are presented, which contains 7N channel wavelengths. Because of the good scalability in wavelength, this device shows potential application of wideband signal routing in optical NoC.

Abstract:By introducing 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-benzophenone (UVA) and 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) as the ligands, the ternary rare earth complex of Eu(UVA)3Phen is synthesized, and it is characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectra (MS) and infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy. Results show that the Eu(III) in complex emits strong red luminescence when it is excited by UV light, and it has higher sensitized luminescent efficiency and longer lifetime. The organic-inorganic thin film of complex Eu(UVA)3Phendoped with nano-TiO2 is prepared, and the nano-TiO2 is used in the luminescence layer to change theluminescence property of Eu(UVA)3Phen. It is found that there is an efficient energy transfer process between ligands and metal ions. Moreover, in an indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(N-vinylcar-bazole) (PVK)/Eu(UVA)3Phen/Al device, Eu3+ can be excited by intramolecular ligand-to-metal energy transfer process. The main peak of emission at 613 nm is attributed to 5D0→7F2 transition of the Eu3+, and this process results in the enhanced red emission.

Abstract:A series of Ce3+, Eu2+ and Ce3+-Eu2+ doped Ca9Al(PO4)7 phosphors are synthesized by a high temperature solid-state method. Under 291 nm excitation, Ca9Al(PO4)7:Ce3+ has one emission band at 356 nm, which is attributed to 4f05d1→4f1 transition of Ce3+. Under 305 nm excitation, Ca9Al(PO4)7:Eu2+ presents one emission band at 445 nm, which is assigned to 4f65d1→4f7 transition of Eu2+. Energy transfer from Ce3+ to Eu2+ in Ca9Al(PO4)7 is validated and proved to be a resonant type via a quadrupole-quadrupole interaction. Critical distance (Rc) of Ce3+ to Eu2+ in Ca9Al(PO4)7 is calculated to be 1.264 nm. Moreover, the emission intensity of Ca9Al(PO4)7:Ce3+, Eu2+ can be tuned by properly adjusting the relative doping composition of Ce3+/Eu2+.

Abstract:We propose a surface plasmon (SP) structure in electrically pumped multiple graphene-layer (MGL), and calculate the functions of dynamic conductivity and absorption coefficient. Meanwhile, the dependences of absorption coefficient on different factors are simulated. SP can get gain when absorption coefficient is negative, and the SP gain can be enhanced by lowering temperature, applying high bias voltage and choosing the graphene with proper layer number and long momentum relaxation time. The study on SP gain is hopeful to be used in amplifiers and graphene-based plasmon devices.

Abstract:We propose a novel scheme for synchronous optical sampling based on multicast parametric process. The linearly chirped and time-broadened pulses are utilized to replace the traditional mode-locked sampling pulses. An optical sampling rate of 80 Gbit/s is realized by using only one sampling source with repetition rate of 10 GHz.

Abstract:A novel scheme for photonic envelope detection and fiber transmission of 24 GHz impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) signal is proposed based on phase modulator (PM). In the system, an optics assisted envelope detection unit (OAEDU) is used for filtering one of the first sidebands at the output of PM, then this narrow band optical signal transfers over single-mode fiber (SMF), and the envelope of 24 GHz IR-UWB signal is obtained after photodetection (PD) and low pass filter (LPF). The numerical simulation results show that the combination of PM and OAEDU can alleviate the fiber chromatic dispersion (CD) effectively. The proposed system may provide a simple and cost-effective solution for IR-UWB receiver.

Abstract:In this paper, a partial discharge detection system is proposed using an optical fiber Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometric sensor, which is fabricated by photolithography. SU-8 photoresist is employed due to its low Young’s modulus and potentially high sensitivity for ultrasound detection. The FP cavity is formed by coating the fiber end face with two layers of SU-8 so that the cavity can be controlled by the thickness of the middle layer of SU-8. Static pressure measurement experiments are done to estimate the sensing performance. The results show that the SU-8 based sensor has a sensitivity of 154.8 nm/kPa, which is much higher than that of silica based sensor under the same condition. Moreover, the sensor is demonstrated successfully to detect ultrasound from electrode discharge.

Abstract:A communication system based on an ultraviolet (UV) laser at 266 nm is presented to improve the communication distance. The pulse frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation scheme is studied and improved in order to reduce the bit error rate (BER), and is put into practice on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The mathematical models of the modulation and demodulation are established. A test platform is set up to measure the energy density and pulse response under different distances and receiver elevation angles. It is shown that the omnibearing communication can be realized, and the bit rate is limited to 12.5 Mbit/s. The BER is estimated to be less than 10-7 at distance of 300 m in line-of-sight (LOS) communication model and to be less than 10-6 at distance of 80 m in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communication model.

Abstract:An all-fiber sensor based on a cascaded optical fiber device is proposed and demonstrated, and its sensor head is composed of a core-offset Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a long-period fiber grating (LPFG). In the experiment, two dips shaped by the intermodulation between the interference fringe of MZI and the resonant wavelength of LPFG are monitored. Experimental results show that temperature sensitivities of two dips are 0.060 7 nm/°C and 0.056 3 pm/°C, and the refractive index (RI) sensitivities are –18.025 nm/RIU and –55.06 nm/RIU, respectively. The simultaneous measurement of the temperature and external RI is demonstrated based on the sensitive matrix. Its low fabrication cost, simple configuration and high sensitivity make this sensor have potential applications in chemical and biological sensing.

Abstract:An adaptive tensor voting algorithm combined with texture spectrum is proposed. The image texture spectrum is used to get the adaptive scale parameter of voting field. Then the texture information modifies both the attenuation coefficient and the attenuation field so that we can use this algorithm to create more significant and correct structures in the original image according to the human visual perception. At the same time, the proposed method can improve the edge extraction quality, which includes decreasing the flocculent region efficiently and making image clear. In the experiment for extracting pavement cracks, the original pavement image is processed by the proposed method which is combined with the significant curve feature threshold procedure, and the resulted image displays the faint crack signals submerged in the complicated background efficiently and clearly.

Abstract:In this paper, a surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) system for cell analysis is developed for obtaining the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) signal from the interactions between cells and different stimuli. The system is constructed with a red laser light source, a P-polarizer, a glass prism, a 5× objective lens, a charge coupled device (CCD) camera, a gold sensor chip, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) reaction well and a mechanical scanning device. The system is applied to mapping living cells in response to stimuli by characterization of the refractive index (RI) changes. Cell responses to K+ in KCl solutions with concentrations of 5 mmol/L, 20 mmol/L, 50 mmol/L and 100 mmol/L are collected, which indicates that the SPRI method can distinguish the concentration of the stimuli. Furthermore, cell responses to epidermal growth factor (EGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are studied independently. The binding of EGF receptor (EGFR) and EGF is collected as the first signal, and the internal change in cells is recorded as the second signal. The cell response to VEGF is different from that to EGF, which indicates that the SPRI as a label-free, real-time, fast and quantitative method has a potential to distinguish the cell responses to different stimuli.