Sanshui Xiao

Liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals: enhanced light-matter interactions for lab-on-a-chip applications

Optical techniques are finding widespread use in analytical chemistry for chemical and bio-chemical analysis. During the past decade, there has been an increasing emphasis on miniaturization of chemical analysis systems and naturally this has stimulated a large effort in integrating microfluidics and optics in lab-on-a-chip microsystems. This development is partly defining the emerging field of optofluidics. Scaling analysis and experiments have demonstrated the advantage of micro-scale devices over their macroscopic counterparts for a number of chemical applications. However, from an optical point of view, miniaturized devices suffer dramatically from the reduced optical path compared to macroscale experiments, e.g. in a cuvette. Obviously, the reduced optical path complicates the application of optical techniques in lab-on-a-chip systems. In this paper we theoretically discuss how a strongly dispersive photonic crystal environment may be used to enhance the light-matter interactions, thus potentially compensating for the reduced optical path in lab-on-a-chip systems. Combining electromagnetic perturbation theory with full-wave electromagnetic simulations we address the prospects for achieving slow-light enhancement of Beer–Lambert–Bouguer absorption, photonic band-gap based refractometry, and high-Q cavity sensing.

Enhanced Light–Matter Interactions in Graphene-Covered Gold Nanovoid Arrays

The combination of graphene with noble-metal nanostructures is currently being explored for strong light-graphene interactions enhanced by plasmons. We introduce a novel hybrid graphene-metal system for studying light-matter interactions with gold-void nanostructures exhibiting resonances in the visible range. Enhanced coupling of graphene to the plasmon modes of the nanovoid arrays results in significant frequency shifts of the underlying plasmon resonances, enabling 30% enhanced absolute light absorption by adding a monolayer graphene and up to 700-fold enhancement of the Raman response of the graphene. These new perspectives enable us to verify the presence of graphene on gold-void arrays, and the enhancement even allows us to accurately quantify the number of layers. Experimental observations are further supported by numerical simulations and perturbation-theory analysis. The graphene gold-void platform is beneficial for sensing of molecules and placing Rhodamine 6G (R6G) dye molecules on top of the graphene; we observe a strong enhancement of the R6G Raman fingerprints. These results pave the way toward advanced substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with potential for unambiguous single-molecule detection on the atomically well-defined layer of graphene.

Slow-light enhancement of Beer-Lambert-Bouguer absorption

The authors theoretically show how slow light in an optofluidic environment facilitates enhanced light-matter interactions, by orders of magnitude. The proposed concept provides strong opportunities for improving existing miniaturized chemical absorbance cells for Beer-Lambert-Bouguer absorption measurements widely employed in analytical chemistry.

Electromagnetically induced transparency in metamaterials at near-infrared frequency

We employ a planar metamaterial structure composed of a split-ring-resonator (SRR) and paired nano-rods to experimentally realize a spectral response at near-infrared frequencies resembling that of electromagnetically induced transparency. A narrow transparency window associated with low loss is produced, and the magnetic field enhancement at the center of the SRR is dramatically changed, due to the interference between the resonances with significantly different linewidths. The variation of the spectral response in terms of relative position of the bright and dark elements is evaluated with numerical simulations.

Experimental observation of plasmons in a graphene monolayer resting on a two-dimensional subwavelength silicon grating

We experimentally demonstrate graphene-plasmon polariton excitation in a continuous graphene monolayer resting on a two-dimensional subwavelength silicon grating. The subwavelength silicon grating is fabricated by a nanosphere lithography technique with a self-assembled nanosphere array as a template. Measured transmission spectra illustrate the excitation of graphene-plasmon polaritons, which is further supported by numerical simulations and theoretical prediction of plasmon-band diagrams. Our grating-assisted coupling to graphene-plasmon polaritons forms an important platform for graphene-based opto-electronics applications.

Bends and splitters in graphene nanoribbon waveguides

We investigate the performance of bends and splitters in graphene nanoribbon waveguides. Although the graphene waveguides are lossy themselves, we show that bends and splitters do not induce any additional loss provided that the nanoribbon width is sub-wavelength. We use transmission line theory to qualitatively interpret the behavior observed in our simulation. Our results pave a promising way to realize ultra-compact devices operating in the terahertz region.

Plasmon−Phonon Coupling in Large-Area Graphene Dot and Antidot Arrays Fabricated by Nanosphere Lithography

Nanostructured graphene on SiO2 substrates paves the way for enhanced light-matter interactions and explorations of strong plasmon-phonon hybridization in the mid-infrared regime. Unprecedented large-area graphene nanodot and antidot optical arrays are fabricated by nanosphere lithography, with structural control down to the sub-100 nm regime. The interaction between graphene plasmon modes and the substrate phonons is experimentally demonstrated, and structural control is used to map out the hybridization of plasmons and phonons, showing coupling energies of the order 20 meV. Our findings are further supported by theoretical calculations and numerical simulations.

Effective Electro-Optical Modulation with High Extinction Ratio by a Graphene–Silicon Microring Resonator

Graphene opens up for novel optoelectronic applications thanks to its high carrier mobility, ultralarge absorption bandwidth, and extremely fast material response. In particular, the opportunity to control optoelectronic properties through tuning of the Fermi level enables electro-optical modulation, optical-optical switching, and other optoelectronics applications. However, achieving a high modulation depth remains a challenge because of the modest graphene-light interaction in the graphene-silicon devices, typically, utilizing only a monolayer or few layers of graphene. Here, we comprehensively study the interaction between graphene and a microring resonator, and its influence on the optical modulation depth. We demonstrate graphene-silicon microring devices showing a high modulation depth of 12.5 dB with a relatively low bias voltage of 8.8 V. On-off electro-optical switching with an extinction ratio of 3.8 dB is successfully demonstrated by applying a square-waveform with a 4 V peak-to-peak voltage.

Surface-plasmon-polariton-induced suppressed transmission through ultrathin metal disk arrays

We report surface-plasmon-polariton-induced suppressed transmission through two-dimensional arrays of isolated metal disks with a thickness comparable to optical skin depth of the metal. A transmittance dip of -17.5 dB is achieved at the resonant wavelength of 1524 nm, compared to -12 dB for closed film. Coupling the light into the surface-plasmon polariton results in enhanced absorption, which is potentially interesting in solar cell applications.

Graphene-plasmon polaritons: From fundamental properties to potential applications

With unique possibilities for controlling light in nanoscale devices, graphene plasmonics has opened new perspectives to the nanophotonics community with potential applications in metamaterials, modulators, photodetectors, and sensors. In this paper, we briefly review the recent exciting progress in graphene plasmonics. We begin with a general description of the optical properties of graphene, particularly focusing on the dispersion of graphene-plasmon polaritons. The dispersion relation of graphene-plasmon polaritons of spatially extended graphene is expressed in terms of the local response limit with an intraband contribution. With this theoretical foundation of graphene-plasmon polaritons, we then discuss recent exciting progress, paying specific attention to the following topics: excitation of graphene plasmon polaritons, electron-phonon interactions in graphene on polar substrates, and tunable graphene plasmonics with applications in modulators and sensors. Finally, we address some of the apparent challenges and promising perspectives of graphene plasmonics.