Coupled quantum molecular cavity optomechanics with surface plasmon enhancement

Cavity optomechanics is applied to study the coupling behavior of interacting molecules in surface plasmon systems driven by two-color laser beams. Different from the traditional force–distance measurement, due to a resonant frequency shift or a peak splitting on the probe spectrum, we have proposed a convenient method to measure the van der Waals force strength and interaction energy via nonlinear spectroscopy. The minimum force value can reach approximately 10^(-15) N, which is 3 to 4 orders of magnitude smaller than the widely applied atomic force microscope(AFM). It is also shown that two adjacent molecules with similar chemical structures and nearly equal vibrational frequencies can be easily distinguished by the splitting of the transparency peak. Based on this coupled optomechanical system, we also conceptually design a tunable optical switch by van der Waals interaction. Our results will provide new approaches for understanding the complex and dynamic interactions inmolecule–plasmon systems.

Regulated CO adsorption by the electrode with OH^(-) repulsive property for enhancing C–C coupling

Electrochemical CO_(2) reduction driven by renewable electricity is one of the promising strategies to store sus-tainable energy as fuels.However,the selectivity of value-added multi-carbon products remains poor for further application of this process.Here,we regulate CO adsorption by forming a Nafion layer on the copper(Cu)electrode that is repulsive to OH^(-),contributing to enhanced selectivity of CO_(2) reduction to C_(2) products with the suppression of C 1 products.The operando Raman spectroscopy indicates that the local OH^(-)would adsorb on part of active sites and decrease the adsorption of CO.Therefore,the electrode with repulsive to OH^(-)can adjust the concentration of OH^(-),leading to the increased adsorption of CO and enhanced C–C coupling.This work shows that electrode design could be an effective strategy for improving the selectivity of CO_(2) reduction to multi-carbon products.

Laser annealing of SiO2 film deposited by ICPECVD for fabrication of silicon based low loss waveguide

Laser annealing of silicon dioxide （SiO2） film formed by inductively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （ICPECVD）is studied for the fabrication of low loss silicon based waveguide. The influence of laser annealing on ICPECVD-deposited SiO2 film is investigated. The surface roughness, refractive index, and etch rate of annealed samples are compared with those of SiO2 film obtained by thermal oxidation. It is demonstrated that the performance of ICPECVD-deposited SiO2 film can be significantly improved by laser annealing. Al2O3/SIO2 waveguide has been fabricated on silicon substrate with the SiO2 lower cladding formed by ICPECVD and laser annealing process, and its propagation loss is found to be comparable with that of the waveguide with thermally oxidized lower cladding.