Hyeonsoo Park

Plasmonic meta-slit: shaping and controlling near-field focus

In the field of nanophotonics, tuning the focus of near-field signals has been a great issue due to the demands on near-field imaging for, e.g., biomedical sensors and plasmonic tweezers. Using subwavelength structures for active control of plasmonic systems would be highly desirable. Here, we propose a plasmonic meta-slit, a simple but powerful structure that can switch the direction and length of its focus by changing optical polarization. It is composed of single or double arrays of nanoslit segments with a specific tilted angle distribution for a strong and flexible polarization dependency. Three representative examples of meta-slits for polarization-sensitive focusing, directional switching, and asymmetric focusing are theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. We expect that the proposed scheme can be applied not only to plasmonic switches and tunable lenses, but also as a design method for shaping near-field signals.

Near-infrared coherent perfect absorption in plasmonic metal-insulator-metal waveguide.

We propose a design of ultra-compact plasmonic coherent perfect absorber (CPA) working in the near-infrared band. The main operating mechanism is the magnetic-dipole resonant coherent absorption in the metal-insulator-metal waveguide, which enables the CPA in the near-infrared band and can be also flexibly adjusted to place the magnetic-dipole resonance at any position in the near-infrared band. Numerical analysis verifies our proposal that the magnetic resonant CPA is crucial for near-IR CPA in the ultra-compact metal-insulator-metal waveguide.

Metamaterials and Metasurfaces for Sensor Applications

Electromagnetic metamaterials (MMs) and metasurfaces (MSs) are artificial media and surfaces with subwavelength separations of meta-atoms designed for anomalous manipulations of light properties. Owing to large scattering cross-sections of metallic/dielectric meta-atoms, it is possible to not only localize strong electromagnetic fields in deep subwavelength volume but also decompose and analyze incident light signal with ultracompact setup using MMs and MSs. Hence, by probing resonant spectral responses from extremely boosted interactions between analyte layer and optical MMs or MSs, sensing the variation of refractive index has been a popular and practical application in the field of photonics. Moreover, decomposing and analyzing incident light signal can be easily achieved with anisotropic MSs, which can scatter light to different directions according to its polarization or wavelength. In this paper, we present recent advances and potential applications of optical MMs and MSs for refractive index sensing and sensing light properties, which can be easily integrated with various electronic devices. The characteristics and performances of devices are summarized and compared qualitatively with suggestions of design guidelines.

Gender-specific differences in PPARγ regulation of follicular helper T cell responses with estrogen.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), a master regulator of adipocyte differentiation, has recently been connected with effector T cells, though its role is still not clear. Here, we investigated the roles of PPARγ in follicular helper T (TFH) cell responses regarding gender specificity. NP-OVA immunization in female but not male CD4-PPARγKO mice induced higher proportions of TFH cells and germinal center (GC) B cells following immunization than were seen in wild type mice. Treatment with the PPARγ agonist pioglitazone significantly reduced TFH cell responses in female mice while pioglitazone and estradiol (E2) co-treatment ameliorated TFH cells and GC responses in male mice. E2 treatment significantly enhanced PPARγ expression in male T cells, while T cell activation in the estrus but not in the diestrus stage of the menstrual cycle of females was inhibited by pioglitazone, suggesting that an estrogen-sufficient environment is important for PPARγ-mediated T cell regulation. These results demonstrate gender-based differences in sensitivities of PPARγ in TFH responses. These findings suggest that appropriate function of PPARγ is required in the regulation of female GC responses and that therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases using PPARγ agonists need to be tailored accordingly.

Sex-Based Selectivity of PPARγ Regulation in Th1, Th2, and Th17 Differentiation

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) has recently been recognized to regulate adaptive immunity through Th17 differentiation, Treg functions, and TFH responses. However, its role in adaptive immunity and autoimmune disease is still not clear, possibly due to sexual differences. Here, we investigated in vitro treatment study with the PPARγ agonist pioglitazone to compare Th1, Th2, and Th17 differentiation in male and female mouse splenic T cells. Pioglitazone treatment significantly inhibited various effector T cell differentiations including Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells from female naïve T cells, but it selectively reduced IL-17 production in male Th17 differentiation. Interestingly, pioglitazone and estradiol (E2) co-treatment of T cells in males inhibited differentiation of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells, suggesting a mechanism for the greater sensitivity of PPARγ to ligand treatment in the regulation of effector T cell differentiation in females. Collectively, these results demonstrate that PPARγ selectively inhibits Th17 differentiation only in male T cells and modulates Th1, Th2, and Th17 differentiation in female T cells based on different level of estrogen exposure. Accordingly, PPARγ could be an important immune regulator of sexual differences in adaptive immunity.

Near-field focus steering along arbitrary trajectory via multi-lined distributed nanoslits

The modulation of near-field signals has recently attracted considerable interest because of demands for the development of nano-scale optical devices that are capable of overcoming the diffraction limit of light. In this paper, we propose a new type of tuneable plasmonic lens that permits the foci of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) signals to be continuously steered by adjusting the input polarization state. The proposed structure consists of multi-lined nanoslit arrays, in which each array is tilted at a different angle to provide polarization sensitivity and the nanoslit size is adjusted to balance the relative amplitudes of the excited SPPs from each line. The nanoslits of each line are designed to focus SPPs at different positions; hence, the SPP focal length can be tuned by modifying the incident polarization state. Unlike in previously reported studies, our method enables plasmonic foci to be continuously varied with a smooth change in the incident linear polarization state. The proposed structures provide a novel degree of freedom in the multiplexing of near fields. Such characteristics are expected to enable the realization of active SPP modulation that can be applied in near-field imaging, optical tweezing systems, and integrated nano-devices.

Reflectionless compact plasmonic waveguide mode converter by using a mode-selective cavity

A compact transmissive plasmonic waveguide mode converter which aims for the elimination of reflection and transmission of unconverted mode is proposed. The proposed scheme exploits a cavity formed by mode selective mirrors, which only allows two output modes: the transmission of the target mode and the reflection of the input mode. By appropriately tuning cavity lengths, the reflection of the input mode can also be suppressed to near zero by destructive interference, thereby all the residual outgoing modes are suppressed. The proposed device might be useful in the design of integrated photonic system since it relaxes the problem of unwanted reflection.

Two-dimensional array of plasmonic V-shaped grooves for sensing applications

We numerically analyzed the refractive index sensing performance of the two-dimensional array of plasmonic V-shaped grooves. The structural parameters are optimized to show a sharp and large reflectance dip with desired sensing region (n=1.33). Acquiring the sensitivity of the environmental refractive index as 400 nm/RIU in the visible region, FWHM of the dip is ∼5 nm. It shows that the proposed structure has extreme value of quality factor and good extinction ratio. The localized mode has the hot spot at the bottom of the grooves so that localized sensing based on magnetic field enhancement is possible. Moreover, the localized mode is dependent on the tapered angle of the grooves, not the opening ratio. The performance of the dual V-shaped grooves is also discussed. The array of the closely located grooves has nearly identical reflectance spectra but a moderate amount of dip shift exists. As well as obtaining refractive index sensing by this configuration, magnetic field hot spot generation by coherent excitation can be applied to highly localized sensing and enhancing nonlinear processes.

Triple-slit nanoaperture for transmission enhancement of a cavity-aperture.

A cavity-aperture has a problem of low transmission efficiency due to its nano-sized aperture despite its potential for plasmonic color filters. In this study, a triple-slit aperture is proposed as the nanoaperture in the center of the cavity-aperture to improve the transmittance. It provides one centered nanoslit and two symmetric wedge structures to each of three cavities corresponding to incident polarization, and induces the strong confinement and transmission of electric fields due to plasmonic resonances at the two types of nanostructures. The transmittance of the triple-slit aperture is theoretically five times and experimentally two times higher than that of a circular aperture. Furthermore, expansive studies on polarization-insensitive nanoapertures with six-fold rotational symmetry will contribute to the development of plasmonic color filters and imaging devices.

Bilayer metasurface for directional launching of cross-polarization component

In this paper, we propose a bilayer metasurface which is capable of launching helicity-inverted wave only in the forward direction. In order to obtain directional scattering characteristics of individual cells, we employed two layers of thin metasurfaces that are separated by a dielectric spacer. Multiple scattering analysis is used to derive design conditions for single metasurface reflectances for each polarization and it was shown that such target reflectances are realizable with split-ring aperture. The unit cell structure optimized for forward-only scattering of cross-polarization component is shown to have power extinction ratio as high as 32. The proposed structure can potentially form a supercell with reflective cells so that geometric phases of transmitted light and reflected light can be independently controlled. The proposed scheme is expected to pave a way to new types of metasurfaces with multiplexed optical functions.