Miniature tunable Airy beam optical meta-device

Tunable Airy beams with controllable propagation trajectories have sparked interest in various fields,such as optical manipulation and laser fabrication.Existing research approaches encounter challenges related to insufficient compactness and integration feasibility,or they require enhanced tunability to enable real-time dynamic manipulation of the propagation trajectory.In this work,we present a novel method that utilizes a dual metasurface system to surpass these limitations,significantly enhancing the practical potential of the Airy beam.Our approach involves encoding a cubic phase profile and two off-axis Fresnel lens phase profiles across the two metasurfaces.The validity of the proposed strategy has been confirmed through simulation and experimental results.The proposed meta-device addresses the existing limitations and lays the foundation for broadening the applicability of Airy beams across diverse domains,encompassing light-sheet microscopy,laser fabrication,optical tweezers,etc.

The Combined Effect of Spin-Transfer Torque and Voltage-Controlled Strain Gradient on Magnetic Domain-Wall Dynamics:Toward Tunable Spintronic Neuron

Magnetic domain wall(DW), as one of the promising information carriers in spintronic devices, have been widely investigated owing to its nonlinear dynamics and tunable properties. Here, we theoretically and numerically demonstrate the DW dynamics driven by the synergistic interaction between current-induced spin-transfer torque(STT) and voltage-controlled strain gradient(VCSG) in multiferroic heterostructures. Through electromechanical and micromagnetic simulations, we show that a desirable strain gradient can be created and it further modulates the equilibrium position and velocity of the current-driven DW motion. Meanwhile, an analytical Thiele's model is developed to describe the steady motion of DW and the analytical results are quite consistent with the simulation data. Finally, we find that this combination effect can be leveraged to design DW-based biological neurons where the synergistic interaction between STT and VCSG-driven DW motion as integrating and leaking motivates mimicking leaky-integrate-and-fire(LIF) and self-reset function. Importantly, the firing response of the LIF neuron can be efficiently modulated, facilitating the exploration of tunable activation function generators, which can further help improve the computational capability of the neuromorphic system.

Tunable superconducting resonators via on-chip control of local magnetic field

Superconducting microwave resonators play a pivotal role in superconducting quantum circuits.The ability to finetune their resonant frequencies provides enhanced control and flexibility.Here,we introduce a frequency-tunable superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator.By applying electrical currents through specifically designed ground wires,we achieve the generation and control of a localized magnetic field on the central line of the resonator,enabling continuous tuning of its resonant frequency.We demonstrate a frequency tuning range of 54.85 MHz in a 6.21-GHz resonator.This integrated and tunable resonator holds great potential as a dynamically tunable filter and as a key component of communication buses and memory elements in superconducting quantum computing.

A Transparent Photoresist Made of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle-Embedded Acrylic Resin with a Tunable Refractive Index for UV-Imprint Lithography

Transparent photoresists with a high refractive index(RI)and high transmittance in visible wavelengths have promising functionalities in optical fields.This work reports a kind of tunable optical material composed of titanium dioxide nanoparticles embedded in acrylic resin with a high RI for ultraviolet(UV)-imprint lithography.The hybrid film exhibits a tunable RI of up to 1.67(589 nm)after being cured by UV light,while maintaining both a high transparency of over 98%in the visible light range and a low haze of less than 0.05%.The precision machining of optical microstructures can be imprinted easily and efficiently using the hybrid resin,which acts as a light guide plate(LGP)to guide the light from the side to the top in order to conserve the energy of the display device.These preliminary studies based on both laboratory and commercial experiments pave the way for exploiting the unparalleled optical properties of nanocomposite resins and promoting their industrial application.

Fibrous MXene Aerogels with Tunable Pore of Contaminated Seawater

The seawater desalination based on solardriven interfacial evaporation has emerged as a promising technique to alleviate the global crisis on freshwater shortage.However,achieving high desalination performance on actual,oil-contaminated seawater remains a critical challenge,because the transport channels and evaporation interfaces of the current solar evaporators are easily blocked by the oil slicks,resulting in undermined evaporation rate and conversion efficiency.Herein,we propose a facile strategy for fabricating a modularized solar evaporator based on flexible MXene aerogels with arbitrarily tunable,highly ordered cellular/lamellar pore structures for high-efficiency oil interception and desalination.The core design is the creation of 1D fibrous MXenes with sufficiently large aspect ratios,whose superior flexibility and plentiful link forms lay the basis for controllable 3D assembly into more complicated pore structures.The cellular pore structure is responsible for effective contaminants rejection due to the multi-sieving effect achieved by the omnipresent,isotropic wall apertures together with underwater superhydrophobicity,while the lamellar pore structure is favorable for rapid evaporation due to the presence of continuous,large-area evaporation channels.The modularized solar evaporator delivers the best evaporation rate(1.48 kg m-2h-1)and conversion efficiency(92.08%)among all MXene-based desalination materials on oil-contaminated seawater.

Generating a tunable narrow electron beam comb via laser-driven plasma grating

We propose a novel approach for generating a high-density,spatially periodic narrow electron beam comb(EBC)from a plasma grating induced by the interference of two intense laser pulses in subcritical-density plasma.We employ particle-in-cell(PIC)simulations to investigate the effects of cross-propagating laser pulses with specific angles overlapping in a subcritical plasma.This overlap results in the formation of a transverse standing wave,leading to a spatially periodic high-density modulation known as a plasma grating.The electron density peak within the grating can reach several times the background plasma density.The charge imbalance between electrons and ions in the electron density peaks causes mutual repulsion among the electrons,resulting in Coulomb expansion and acceleration of the electrons.As a result,some electrons expand into vacuum,forming a periodic narrow EBC with an individual beam width in the nanoscale range.To further explore the formation of the nanoscale EBC,we conduct additional PIC simulations to study the dependence on various laser parameters.Overall,our proposed method offers a promising and controlled approach to generate tunable narrow EBCs with high density.

Photonic Generation of Chirp-Rate-Tunable Microwave Waveforms Using Temporal Cavity Solitons with Agile Repetition Rate

Chirp-rate-tunable microwave waveforms(CTMWs)with dynamically tunable parameters are of basic interest to many practical applications.Recently,photonic generation of microwave signals has made their bandwidths wider and more convenient for optical fiber transmission.An all-optical method for generation of multiband CTMWs is proposed and demonstrated on all-fiber architecture,relying on dual temporal cavity solitons with agile repetition rate.In the experiment,the triangular optical chirp microwave waveforms with bandwidth above0.45 GHz(ranging from 1.45 GHz to 1.9 GHz)are obtained,and the chirp rate reaches 0.9 GHz/ms.The reconfigurability is also demonstrated by adjusting the control signal.This all-optical approach provides a technical basis for compact,multi-band reconfigurable microwave photonics transmission and reception systems.

Exploring plasmons weakly coupling to perovskite excitons with tunable emission by energy transfer

Localized surface plasmon resonance(LSPR) has caused extensive concern and achieved widespread applications in optoelectronics. However, the weak coupling of plasmons and excitons in a nanometal/semiconductor system remains to be investigated via energy transfer. Herein, bandgap tunable perovskite films were synthesized to adjust the emission peaks,for further coupling with stable localized surface plasmons from gold nanoparticles. The degree of mismatch, using steadystate and transient photoluminescence(PL), was investigated systematically in two different cases of gold nanoparticles that were in direct contacting and insulated. The results demonstrated the process of tuning emission coupled to LSPR via wavelength-dependent photoluminescence intensity in the samples with an insulating spacer. In the direct contact case,the decreased radiative decay rate involves rapid plasmon resonance energy transfer to the perovskite semiconductor and non-radiative energy transfer to metal nanoparticles in the near-field range.

A Thermo-Tunable Metamaterial as an Actively Controlled Broadband Absorber

Metamaterials have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their powerful abilities in manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves. However, most previously reported metamaterials are unable to actively control full-band EM waves. In this paper, we propose a thermo-tunable broadband metamaterial (T-TBM) using paraffin-based composites (PD-Cs) with different phase transition temperatures. Active control of the T-TBM reflection loss peaks from low to high frequency is realized by manipulating the solid–liquid state of the PD-Cs at different phase transition temperatures. The absorption peak bandwidth (where the reflection loss value is less than −30 dB) can be changed, while the broad bandwidth absorption (where the reflection loss value is less than −10 dB) is satisfied by adjusting the temperature of the T-TBM. It is shown that the stagnation of the phase transition temperature of the PD-Cs in the T-TBM provides a time window for actively controlling the EM wave absorption response under different thermal conditions. The device has a broad application prospect in the fields of EM absorption, intelligent metamaterials, multifunctional structural devices, and more.

Fast and perfect state transfer in superconducting circuit with tunable coupler

In quantum computation and quantum information processing, the manipulation and engineering of quantum systems to suit certain purposes are an ongoing task. One such example is quantum state transfer(QST), an essential requirement for both quantum communication and large-scale quantum computation. Here we engineer a chain of four superconducting qubits with tunable couplers to realize the perfect state transfer(PST) protocol originally proposed in quantum spin networks and successfully demonstrate the efficient transfer of an arbitrary single-qubit state from one end of the chain to the other,achieving a high fidelity of 0.986 in just 25 ns. This demonstrated QST is readily to extend to larger chain and multi-node configurations, thus serving as a desirable tool for scalable quantum information processing.

Fibrous Aerogels with Tunable Superwettability for High-Performance Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is an emerging technology for water desalination.Generally,double-layered structure with separate surface wettability properties is usually employed for evaporator construction.However,creating materials with tunable properties is a great challenge because the wettability of existing materials is usually monotonous.Herein,we report vinyltrimethoxysilane as a single molecular unit to hybrid with bacterial cellulose(BC)fibrous network,which can be built into robust aerogel with entirely distinct wettability through controlling assembly pathways.Siloxane groups or carbon atoms are exposed on the surface of BC nanofibers,resulting in either superhydrophilic or superhydrophobic aerogels.With this special property,single component-modified aerogels could be integrated into a double-layered evaporator for water desalination.Under 1 sun,our evaporator achieves high water evaporation rates of 1.91 and 4.20 kg m^(-2)h^(-1)under laboratory and outdoor solar conditions,respectively.Moreover,this aerogel evaporator shows unprecedented lightweight,structural robustness,long-term stability under extreme conditions,and excellent salt-resistance,highlighting the advantages in synthesis of aerogel materials from the single molecular unit.

Optically pumped wavelength-tunable lasing from a GaN beam cavity with an integrated Joule heater pivoted on Si

Dynamically tunable laser sources are highly promising for realizing visionary concepts of integrated photonic circuits and other applications. In this paper, a Ga N-based laser with an integrated PN junction heater on Si is fabricated.The photoluminescence properties of the Ga N beam cavity are controlled by temperature, and the Joule heater provides electrically driven regulation of temperature. These two features of the cavity make it possible to realize convenient tuning of the lasing properties. The multi-functional Ga N beam cavity achieves optically pumped lasing with a single mode near 362.4 nm with a high Q-factor of 1394. The temperature of this device increases by 0–5℃ under the Joule heating effect. Then, electrical control of the lasing mode is demonstrated. The lasing resonant peak shows a continuous redshift of about 0.5 nm and the device also exhibits dynamic switching of its lasing mode. The lasing modulation can be ascribed to temperature-induced reduction of the bandgap. Our work may be of benefit for external optical modulation in future chip-based optoelectronic devices.

Tunable vacancy defect chemistry on free-standing carbon cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries

The defect chemistry is successfully modulated on free-standing and binder-free carbon cathodes for highly efficient Li-S redox reactions.Such rationally regulated defect engineering realizes the synchronization of ion/electron-conductive and defect-rich networks on the threedimension carbon cathode,leading to its tunable activity for both relieving the shuttle phenomenon and accelerating the sulfur redox reaction kinetics.As expected,the defective carbon cathode harvests a high rate capacity of 1217.8 mAh g^(-1)at 0.2 C and a superior capacity retention of61.7%at 2 C after 500 cycles.Even under the sulfur mass loading of 11.1 mg cm^(-2),the defective cathode still holds a remarkable areal capacity of 8.5 mAh cm^(-2).

Tunable topological interface states and resonance states of surface waves based on the shape memory alloy

Topological interface state(TIS)of elastic wave has attracted significant research interest due to its potential prospects in strengthening acoustic energy and enhancing the signal accuracy of damage identification and quantification.However,previous implementations on the interface modes of surface waves are limited to the non-adjustable frequency band and unalterable mode width.Here,we demonstrate the tunable TIS and topological resonance state(TRS)of Rayleigh wave by using a shape memory alloy(SMA)stubbed semi-infinite one-dimensional(1D)solid phononic crystals(PnCs),which simultaneously possesses the adjustable mode width.The mechanism of tunability stems from the phase transformation of the SMA between the martensite at low temperature and the austenite at high temperature.The tunable TIS of Rayleigh wave is realized by combining two bandgap-opened PnCs with different Zak phases.The TRS with adjustable mode width is achieved in the heterostructures by adding PnCs with Dirac point to the middle of two bandgap-opened PnCs with different Zak phases,which exhibits the extraordinary robustness in contrast to the ordinary Fabry–Perot resonance state.This research provides new possibilities for the highly adjustable Rayleigh wave manipulation and find promising applications such as tunable energy harvesters,wide-mode filters,and high-sensitivity Rayleigh wave detectors.

Transparent Thermally Tunable Microwave Absorber Prototype Based on Patterned VO2 Film

Transparent microwave absorbers that exhibit high optical transmittance and microwave absorption capability are ideal,although having a fixed absorption performance limits their applicability.Here,a simple,transparent,and thermally tunable microwave absorber is proposed,based on a patterned vanadium dioxide(VO_(2))film.Numerical calculations and experiments demonstrate that the proposed VO_(2)absorber has a high optical transmittance of 84.9%at 620 nm;its reflection loss at 15.06 GHz can be thermally tuned from–4.257 to–60.179 dB,and near-unity absorption is achieved at 523.750 K.Adjusting only the patterned VO_(2)film duty cycle can change the temperature of near-unity absorption.Our VO_(2)absorber has a simple composition,a high optical transmittance,a thermally tunable microwave absorption performance,a large modulation depth,and an adjustable temperature tuning range,making it promising for application in tunable sensors,thermal emitters,modulators,thermal imaging,bolometers,and photovoltaic devices.

Wavelength-tunable organic semiconductor lasers based on elastic distributed feedback gratings

Wavelength-tunable organic semiconductor lasers based on mechanically stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) gratings were developed. The intrinsic stretchability of PDMS was explored to modulate the period of the distributed feedback gratings for fine tuning the lasing wavelength. Notably, elastic lasers based on three typical light-emitting molecules show com-parable lasing threshold values analogous to rigid devices and a continuous wavelength tunability of about 10 nm by mechanic-al stretching. In addition, the stretchability provides a simple solution for dynamically tuning the lasing wavelength in a spec-tral range that is challenging to achieve for inorganic counterparts. Our work has provided a simple and efficient method of fab-ricating tunable organic lasers that depend on stretchable distributed feedback gratings, demonstrating a significant step in the advancement of flexible organic optoelectronic devices.

A New Two-Stage Tunable Space-Time Adaptive Detector

In order to improve the rejection capability of mismatched interferer signals,a new two-stage detector is proposed under homogeneous scenarios with unknown covariance matrix,which is obtained by cascading the adaptive matched filter(AMF)detector and the enhanced RAO(EnRAO)detector.The new detector has constant false alarm performance,and the closed-form expression of probability of false alarm and probability of detection is derived.The performance of the new detector is assessed,and analyzed in comparison with other detectors.The results show that,the proposed detector can provide enhanced rejection capability in the case of mismatch,but the performance of the detector is slightly lost under the condition of matching.

3D bioprinting of complex biological structures with tunable elastic modulus and porosity using freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels

Three-dimensional(3D)bioprinting has been used widely for the construction of hard tissues such as bone and cartilage.However,constructing soft tissues with complex structures remains a challenge.In this study,complex structures characterized by both tunable elastic modulus and porosity were printed using freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels(FRESHs)printing methods.A mixture of alginate and gelatin was used as the main functional component of the bioink.Rheological analysis showed that this bioink possesses shear thinning and shear recovery properties,supporting both cryogenic and FRESH printing methods.Potential printing capabilities and limitations of cryogenic and FRESH printing were then analyzed by printability tests.A series of complex structures were printed by FRESH printing methods which could not be realized using conventional approaches.Mechanical tests and scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that the printed structure is of excellent flexibility and could be applied in various conditions by adjusting its mechanical modulus and porosity.L929 fibroblast cells maintained cell viability in cell-laden-printed structures,and the addition of collagen further improved the hydrogels’biocompatibility.Overall,all results provided useful insight into the building of human soft tissue organ blocks.

The Influence of Energy Transfer on the Color Temperature Change in Color-Tunable Organic Light Emitting Diodes with Interface Exciplex

The color-tunable white organic light-emitting diode (CT-WOLED) with wide correlation color temperature (CCT) has many advantages in optimizing the artificial light source to adapt to the human physiological cycle. The research on the change trend of CCT and the law of extending the change range of CCT will help to further improve the performance of this kind of device. The present work fabricated a series of CT-WOLED devices with a simple structure, which are all composed of two ultra-thin phosphor layers (PO-01 and Flrpic) and a spacer interlayer. The yellow interface exciplex (TCTA/PO-T2T) formed between the spacer layer (PO-T2T) and transmission material (TCTA) in EML will decrease the CCT value at low voltage. The relationship between the energy transfer in EML and CCT change trend is investigated by adjusting the interface exciplexes and the thickness of the interlayer or the phosphor layer in devices A, B and C, respectively. The results demonstrate that a simple OLED device with an interlayer inserted between two ultra-thin phosphor layers can achieve a wider CCT span from 3359 K to 6451 K at voltage increases from 2.75 V to 8.25 V. .

Computer aided design and analysis of a tunable muzzle brake

This research work deals with the design of a tunable muzzle brake [10] for a rifle chambered in 5.56 x 45 NATO ammunition. It proposes to solve the problem of handling differences from shooter to shooter by incorporating the feature of tunability. Beside this, it also solves the problem of requirement of optimum recoil in short recoil weapons. This innovation gives this design an edge over its already existing counterparts in the market. The product is designed using the internal ballistics calculations and the investigations been performed using solidworks flow simulation tool and ANSYS static structural to check the parameters like velocity distribution, pressure growth, and muzzle brake force along the series of ports and comparison of the so found results with those devised by the authors of the documents mentioned in references. This assures the market adaptability of the product for satisfactory performance, when brought among its already existing counterpart, though with a slight edge over them due to tunability. The results so found shall be concluded satisfactory regarding the performance of muzzle brake.