Silicon nanophotonics for on-chip light manipulation

The field of silicon nanophotonics has attracted considerable attention in the past decade because of its unique advantages,including complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor（CMOS） compatibility and the ability to achieve an ultra-high integration density. In particular, silicon nanophotonic integrated devices for on-chip light manipulation have been developed successfully and have played very import roles in various applications. In this paper, we review the recent progress of silicon nanophotonic devices for on-chip light manipulation, including the static type and the dynamic type. Static onchip light manipulation focuses on polarization/mode manipulation, as well as light nanofocusing, while dynamic on-chip light manipulation focuses on optical modulation/switching. The challenges and prospects of high-performance silicon nanophotonic integrated devices for on-chip light manipulation are discussed.

A Notional Duette on Nanophotonics Fundamentals

A two-part Notional Synthesis on Nanophotonics Fundamentals is being carried out: On the one hand, a rather novel depiction of the Fermionic Quantum Causality is being attempted. On the other hand, a Nanophotonic Response Encoder is being devised: Illuminated Electrons are the original Protagonists.

Two-photon polymerization lithography for imaging optics

Optical imaging systems have greatly extended human visual capabilities,enabling the observation and understanding of diverse phenomena.Imaging technologies span a broad spectrum of wavelengths from x-ray to radio frequencies and impact research activities and our daily lives.Traditional glass lenses are fabricated through a series of complex processes,while polymers offer versatility and ease of production.However,modern applications often require complex lens assemblies,driving the need for miniaturization and advanced designs with micro-and nanoscale features to surpass the capabilities of traditional fabrication methods.Three-dimensional(3D)printing,or additive manufacturing,presents a solution to these challenges with benefits of rapid prototyping,customized geometries,and efficient production,particularly suited for miniaturized optical imaging devices.Various 3D printing methods have demonstrated advantages over traditional counterparts,yet challenges remain in achieving nanoscale resolutions.Two-photon polymerization lithography(TPL),a nanoscale 3D printing technique,enables the fabrication of intricate structures beyond the optical diffraction limit via the nonlinear process of two-photon absorption within liquid resin.It offers unprecedented abilities,e.g.alignment-free fabrication,micro-and nanoscale capabilities,and rapid prototyping of almost arbitrary complex 3D nanostructures.In this review,we emphasize the importance of the criteria for optical performance evaluation of imaging devices,discuss material properties relevant to TPL,fabrication techniques,and highlight the application of TPL in optical imaging.As the first panoramic review on this topic,it will equip researchers with foundational knowledge and recent advancements of TPL for imaging optics,promoting a deeper understanding of the field.By leveraging on its high-resolution capability,extensive material range,and true 3D processing,alongside advances in materials,fabrication,and design,we envisage disruptive solutions to current challenges and a promising incorporation of TPL in future optical imaging applications.

Inverse design of an integrated-nanophotonics optical neural network

Artificial neural networks have dramatically improved the performance of many machine-learning applications such as image recognition and natural language processing. However, the electronic hardware implementations of the above-mentioned tasks are facing performance ceiling because Moore’s Law is slowing down. In this article, we propose an optical neural network architecture based on optical scattering units to implement deep learning tasks with fast speed, low power consumption and small footprint.The optical scattering units allow light to scatter back and forward within a small region and can be optimized through an inverse design method. The optical scattering units can implement high-precision stochastic matrix multiplication with mean squared error < 10-4 and a mere 4*4 um2 footprint.Furthermore, an optical neural network framework based on optical scattering units is constructed by introducing "Kernel Matrix", which can achieve 97.1% accuracy on the classic image classification dataset MNIST.

Nanophotonics in China： Overviews and highlights

The major purpose of this paper is to present a brief overview of the history and the current status of nanophotonics research in China, and to highlight some research results in the past years made by the Chinese nanophotonics communities. I will first briefly introduce the principles of nanophotonics and several of its major disciplines including photonic crystals, plasmonics and metamaterials, and related artificial acoustic structures. Then I will highlight some major progresses made by Chinese research groups in these areas with the selection made merely based on my personal taste. The aim is to let these results better known and appreciated by researchers in the Chinese communities of nanophotonics and related areas, and provide better opportunities of researchers in different areas to have more communications. I also hope that this brief introduction will help to make a better bridge to connect Chinese nanophotonics communities with the broader communities in the world.

State-of-the-art developments in metal and carbon-based semiconducting nanomaterials： applications and functions in spintronics, nanophotonics, and nanomagnetics

Nanomaterials composed of metals and metal alloys are the most valuable components in emerging micro- and nano-electronic devices and innovations to date. The composition of these nanomaterials, their quantum chemical and physical properties, and their production methods are in critical need of summarization, so that a complete state of the art of the present and future of nanotechnologies can be presented. In this review, we report on the most recent activities and results in the fields of spintronics, nanophotonics, and nanomagnetics, with particular emphasis on metallic nanoparticles in alloys and pure metals, as well as in organic combinations and in relation to carbon-based nanostructures. This review shows that the combinatory synthesis of alloys with rare metals, such as scandium, yttrium, and rare earths imparts valuable qualities to high-magnetic-field compounds, and provides unique properties with emphasis on nanoelectronic and computational components. In this review, we also shed light on the methods of synthesis and the background of spintronic, nanomagnetic, and nanophotonic materials, with applications in optics, diagnostics, nanoelectronics, and computational nanotechnology. The review is important for the industrial development of novel materials, and for summarizing both fabrication and manufacturing methods, as well as principles and functions of metallic nanoparticles.

Chinese Optics Letters(《中国光学快报》)2009年“Nanophotonics”和“Digital and Computer-Generated Holography”专题征稿启事

(Chinese Optics Letters(《中国光学快报》)计划于2009年10月在正刊上推出'Nanophotonics'('纳米光子学')专题,特向国内外广大读者以及作者征集该方面原创性的研究论文。征稿范围包括:·Metamaterials:negative index,cloaking and nonlinear

Experimental control of optical helicity in nanophotonics

An analysis of light–matter interactions based on symmetries can provide valuable insight,particularly because it reveals which quantities are conserved and which ones can be transformed within a physical system.In this context,helicity can be a useful addition to more commonly considered observables such as angular momentum.The question arises how to treat helicity,the projection of the total angular momentum onto the linear momentum direction,in practical experiments.In this paper,we put forward a simple but versatile experimental treatment of helicity.We then apply the proposed method to the scattering of light by isolated cylindrical nanoapertures in a gold film.This allows us to study the helicity transformation taking place during the interaction of focused light with the nanoapertures.In particular,we observe from the transmitted light that the scaling of the helicity transformed component with the aperture size is very different to the direct helicity component.

International Symposium on Photonics, Biophotonics,and Nanophotonics'2005

The "International Symposium on Photonics, Biophotonics, and Nanophotonics’2005", sponsored by Chinese Optical Society (COS), State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY at Buffalo), and Southeast University (SEU), will be held on May 14 - 18, 2005 at Nanjing, China. This conference will provide an international forum for the most recent and advanced issues concerning photonics, biophotonics, and nanophotonics. There will be a number of invited talks presented by pioneers and leading scientists in the fields of photonics, biophotonics, and nanophotonics. In particular, a tutorial session will be presented by Prof. Paras N. Prasad to discuss biophotonics and nanophotonics.

Forewords Special Topic Issue on Nanophotonics

This Special Topic Issue has grown out of research that has been highlighted at the Nanophotonics Conference series held in China for the past three years. The fourteen papers appearing in this issue are a small sampling of the total scope of the Conference. Broadly speaking, the subjects covered by the contributing authors include quantum properties using semiconductor materials, nanocharacterization especially with applications to medical fields, photonic crystals and fibers, and plasmonics.

Optical wafer defect inspection at the 10 nm technology node and beyond

The growing demand for electronic devices, smart devices, and the Internet of Things constitutes the primary driving force for marching down the path of decreased critical dimension and increased circuit intricacy of integrated circuits. However, as sub-10 nm high-volume manufacturing is becoming the mainstream, there is greater awareness that defects introduced by original equipment manufacturer components impact yield and manufacturing costs. The identification, positioning, and classification of these defects, including random particles and systematic defects, are becoming more and more challenging at the 10 nm node and beyond.Very recently, the combination of conventional optical defect inspection with emerging techniques such as nanophotonics, optical vortices, computational imaging, quantitative phase imaging, and deep learning is giving the field a new possibility. Hence, it is extremely necessary to make a thorough review for disclosing new perspectives and exciting trends, on the foundation of former great reviews in the field of defect inspection methods. In this article, we give a comprehensive review of the emerging topics in the past decade with a focus on three specific areas:(a) the defect detectability evaluation,(b) the diverse optical inspection systems,and(c) the post-processing algorithms. We hope, this work can be of importance to both new entrants in the field and people who are seeking to use it in interdisciplinary work.

Nonlinear frequency conversion in optical nanoantennas and metasurfaces:materials evolution and fabrication

Nonlinear frequency conversion is one of the most fundamental processes in nonlinear optics.It has a wide range of applications in our daily lives,including novel light sources,sensing,and information processing.It is usually assumed that nonlinear frequency conversion requires large crystals that gradually accumulate a strong effect.However,the large size of nonlinear crystals is not compatible with the miniaturisation of modern photonic and optoelectronic systems.Therefore,shrinking the nonlinear structures down to the nanoscale,while keeping favourable conversion efficiencies,is of great importance for future photonics applications.In the last decade,researchers have studied the strategies for enhancing the nonlinear efficiencies at the nanoscale,e.g.by employing different nonlinear materials,resonant couplings and hybridization techniques.In this paper,we provide a compact review of the nanomaterials-based efforts,ranging from metal to dielectric and semiconductor nanostructures,including their relevant nanofabrication techniques.

Photoluminescence control by hyperbolic metamaterials and metasurfaces:a review

Photolu min esce nee in clud ing fluoresce nee plays a great role in a wide variety of applicati ons from biomedical sensing and imag ing to optoelectr on ics.Therefore,the enhan ceme nt and con trol of photolu min esce nee has imme nse impact on both fun dame ntal scie ntific research and aforeme nti oned applicati ons.Among various nano phot tonic schemes and nanostructures to enhance the photoluminescence,we focus on a certain type of nanostructures,hyperbolic metamaterials(HMMs).HMMs are highly ani sotropic metamaterials,which produce intense localized electric fields.Therefore,HMMs n aturally boost photolu min esce nee from dye molecules,qua ntum dots,n itroge n-vaca ncy cen ters in diam on ds,perovskites and tra nsiti on metal dichalcoge nides.We provide an overview of various con figuratio ns of HMMs,i nclud ing metal-dielectric multilayers,trenches,metallic nanowires,and cavity structures fabricated with the use of noble metals,transparent conductive oxides,and refractory metals as plasmonic elements.We also discuss lasing action realized with HMMs.

Diffractive photonic applications mediated by laser reduced graphene oxides

Modification of reduced graphene oxide in a controllable manner provides a promising material platform for producinggraphene based devices. Its fusion with direct laser writing methods has enabled cost-effective and scalable production for advanced applications based on tailored optical and electronic properties in the conductivity, the fluorescence and the refractive index during the reduction process. This mini-review summarizes the state-of-the-art status of the mechanisms of reduction of graphene oxides by direct laser writing techniques as well as appealing optical diffractive applications including planar lenses, information storage and holographic displays. Owing to its versatility and up-scalability, the laser reduction method holds enormous potentials for graphene based diffractive photonic devices with diverse functionalities.

Diurnal cooling for continuous thermal sources under direct subtropical sunlight produced by quasi-Cantor structure

In this paper, an optical radiative cooler with quasi-Cantor structure is theoretically proposed and analyzed. This simple and symmetrically designed optical structure operates upon continuous thermal sources in diurnal subtropical conditions, and its efficiency is much higher than natural cooling, for instance, when operating upon a typical 323.15 K continuous thermal source with a wind speed at 3 m·s^-1, it can generate a net cooling power of 363.68 W·m^-2, which is 18.26% higher than that of non-radiative heat exchange （natural cooling） under the same conditions. Additionally, several aspects are considered in its design to ensure a low cost in application, which is of great economical and environmental significance.

Acoustic plasmonics of Au grating/Bi2Se3 thin film/sapphire hybrid structures

The surface plasmon polaritons of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 can be excited by using etched grating or grave structures to compensate the wave vector mismatch of the incident photon and plasmon. Here, we demonstrate novel gold grating/Bi2Se3 thin film/sapphire hybrid structures, which allow the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons propagating through nondestructive Bi2Se3 thin film with the help of gold diffractive gratings. Utilizing periodic Au surface structures,the momentum can be matched and the normal-incidence infrared reflectance spectra exhibit pronounced dips. When the width of the gold grating W(with a periodicity 2 W) increases from 400 nm to 1500 nm, the resonant frequencies are tuned from about 7000 cm-1 to 2500 cm-1. In contrast to the expected ■ dispersion for both massive and massless fermions,where q ~π/W is the wave vector, we observe a sound-like linear dispersion even at room temperature. This surface plasmon polaritons with linear dispersion are attributed to the unique noninvasive fabrication method and high mobility of topological surface electrons. This novel structure provides a promising application of Dirac plasmonics.

Daytime Radiative Cooling:Artificial and Bioinspired Strategies

Traditional cooling systems have been posing a significant challenge to the global energy crisis and climate change due to the high energy consumption of the cooling process.In recent years,the emerging daytime radiative cooling provides a promising solution to address the bottleneck of traditional cooling technology by passively dissipating heat radiation to outer space without any energy consumption through the atmospheric transparency window(8~13μm).Whereas its stringent optical criteria require sophisticated and high cost fabrication producers,which hinders the applicability of radiative cooling technology.Many efforts have been devoted to develop high-efficiency and low-cost daytime radiative cooling technologies for practical application,including the nanophotonics based artificial strategy and bioinspired strategy.In order to systematically summarize the development and latest advance of daytime radiative cooling to help developing the most promising approach,here in this paper we will review and compare the two typical strategies on exploring the prospect approach for applicable radiative cooling technology.We will firstly sketch the fundamental of radiative cooling and summarize the common methods for construction radiative cooling devices.Then we will put an emphasis on the summarization and comparison of the two strategies for designing the radiative cooling device,and outlook the prospect and extending application of the daytime radiative cooling technology.

The Surface Plasmons＇ Frequencies of Two Adjacent Metallic Nanospheres by Bloch-Jensen Hydrodynamical Model

The wave guides and optical fibers have long been known to transmit light and electromagnetic fields in large dimensions. Recently, surface plasmons, which are collective plasma oscillations of valence electrons at metal surfaces, have been introduced as an entity that is able to guide light on the surfaces of the metal and to concentrate light in subwavelength volumes. It has been found that periodic array of metallic nanospheres, could be able to enhance the light transmission, and guiding light at nanoscale. The coupling between two nanoparticles in these devices is very important. The Bloch-Jensen hydrodynamical method has been used for computing surface plasmons＇ frequencies of a single metallic nanosphere. It contains the entire pole spectrum automatically, so it is more exactly than the other computational methods. In this research, we have computed the surface plasmons＇ frequencies of two adjacent nanospheres by Bloch-Jensen hydrodynamical model for the first time. The results show that there are two modes for this system, which depend explicitly on interparticle spacing. In addition, we have shown that the excitation modes yield to a single mode of a nanoparticle as the interparticle spacing increases.

On Negative Differential Mobility in Nanophotonic Device Functionality

A negative differential mobility (NDM) of the two-dimensional carrier-gas against some proper external regulator allowing for gradual controlled modification of the nanointerfacial environment tends to occur as interwoven with nanophotonic device functionality. In this work, several instances, in our two-decade principal research, of both experimental observation and conceptual prediction concerning nanophotonics NDM are reconsidered towards outlining a global potential for the appearance of the effect.

Optical phase front control in a metallic grating with equally spaced alternately tapered slits

A technique capable of focusing and bending electromagnetic （EM） waves through plasmonic gratings with equally spaced alternately tapered slits has been introduced. Phase resonances are observed in the optical response of transmission gratings, and the EM wave passes through the tuning slits in the form of surface plasmon polaritons （SPPs） and obtains the required phase retardation to focus at the focal plane. The bending effect is achieved by constructing an asymmetric phase front which results from the tapered slits and gradient refractive index （GRIN） distribution of the dielectric material. Rigorous electromagnetic analysis by using the two-dimensional （2D） finite difference time domain （FDTD） method is employed to verify our proposed designs. When the EM waves are incident at an angle on the optical axis, the beam splitting effect can also be achieved. These index-modulated slits are demonstrated to have unique advantages in beam manipulation compared with the width-modulated ones. In combination with previous studies, it is expected that our results could lead to the realization of ootimum designs for plasmonic nanolenses.