Formation of diffuse and spark discharges between two needle electrodes with the scattering of particles

The development of a nanosecond discharge in a pin-to-pin gap filled with air at atmospheric pressure has been studied with high temporal and spatial resolutions from a breakdown start to the spark decay.Positive and negative nanosecond voltage pulses with an amplitude of tens of kilovolts were applied.Time-resolved images of the discharge development were taken with a fourchannel Intensified Charge Coupled Device(ICCD)camera.The minimum delay between the camera channels could be as short as≈0.1 ns.This made it possible to study the gap breakdown process with subnanosecond resolution.It was observed that a wide-diameter streamer develops from the high-voltage pointed electrode.The ionization processes near the grounded pin electrode started when the streamer crossed half of the gap.After bridging the gap by the streamer,a diffuse discharge was formed.The development of spark leaders from bright spots on the surface of the pointed electrodes was observed at the next stage.It was found that the rate of development of the spark leader is an order of magnitude lower than that of the wide-diameter streamer.Long thin luminous tracks were observed against the background of a discharge plasma glow.It has been established that the tracks are adjacent to brightly glowing spots on the electrodes and are associated with the flight of small particles.

Model of bidirectional reflectance distribution function for metallic materials

Based on the three-component assumption that the reflection is divided into specular reflection,directional diffuse reflection,and ideal diffuse reflection,a bidirectional reflectance distribution function（BRDF） model of metallic materials is presented.Compared with the two-component assumption that the reflection is composed of specular reflection and diffuse reflection,the three-component assumption divides the diffuse reflection into directional diffuse and ideal diffuse reflection.This model effectively resolves the problem that constant diffuse reflection leads to considerable error for metallic materials.Simulation and measurement results validate that this three-component BRDF model can improve the modeling accuracy significantly and describe the reflection properties in the hemisphere space precisely for the metallic materials.

Ultra-wideband RCS reduction using novel configured chessboard metasurface

A novel artificial magnetic conductor（AMC） metasurface is proposed with ultra-wideband 180？phase difference for radar cross section（RCS） reduction. It is composed of two dual-resonant AMC cells, which enable a broadband phase difference of 180°±30°from 7.9 GHz to 19.2 GHz to be achieved. A novel strategy is devised by dividing each rectangular grid in a chessboard configuration into four triangular grids, leading to a further reduction of peak bistatic RCS. Both fullwave simulation and measurement results show that the proposed metasurface presents a good RCS reduction property over an ultra-wideband frequency range.

Angular-modulated spatial distribution of ultrahigh-order modes assisted by random scattering

In designing an optical waveguide with metallic films on a nanometer scale, the random scattering by the natural roughness of the thin film is always ignored. In this paper, we demonstrate that for the ultrahigh-order modes（UOMs） in the symmetric metal cladding waveguide, such a scattering leads to drastic variations in their spatial distribution at different incident angles. Owing to the high mode density of the UOMs, the random scattering induced coupling can be easily related to different modes with different propagation directions or wavenumbers. At small incident angles, the intra-mode coupling dominates, which results in a spatial distribution in the form of concentric rings. At large incident angles, the inter-mode coupling plays the most important role and leads to an array-like pattern. Experimental evidence via optically trapped nanoparticles support the theoretical hypothesis.

Simple Raman scattering sensor integrated with a metallic planar optical waveguide: effective modulation via minor structural adjustment

We report experimental realization of Raman spectra enhancement of copper phthalocyanine, using an on-chip metallic planar waveguide of the sub-millimeter scale. The oscillating ultrahigh order modes excited by the direct coupling method yield high optical intensity at resonance, which is different from the conventional strategy to create localized ＂hot spots.＂ The observed excitation efficiency of the Raman signal is significantly enhanced,owing to the high Q factor of the resonant cavity. Furthermore, effective modulation of the Raman intensity is available by adjusting the polymethyl methacrylate（PMMA） thickness in the guiding layer, i.e., by tuning the light–matter interaction length. A large modulation depth is verified through the fact that 10 times variation in the enhancement factor is observed in the experiment as the PMMA thickness varies from 7 to 23 μm.

SCATTERING OF NORMALLY INCIDENT RAYLEIGH WAVE FROM SHORT-CIRCUITED METALLIC GRATING

Starting from piezoelectric crystal dynamic equation etc., both the electric potential and surface charge induced by the incident wave are obtained with electrical boundary perturbation technique. The scattered waves are then derived including both surface and bulk waves through integral transformation with the induced charge as exciting source.The scattered surface waves from the grating on YZ-LiNbO3 are then numerically calculated, and both the reflective and forward scattering coefficients are given vs. the strip width. Furthermore, the surface wave phase velocity change when passing the grating is derived and numerically calculated too. The theoretical prediction agrees well with measured results.

SERS nanoprobes for bio-application

The ability to tune the size, shape, composition and surface properties impart nanoparticles with the desired functions for bio-application. This article highlights some of the recent examples in the exploration of metal （e.g., gold and silver） nanoparticles, especially those with magnetic properties and bio-conjugated structures, as theranostic nanoprobes. Such nanoprobes exhibit tunable optical, spectroscopic, magnetic, and electrical properties for signal amplifications. Examples discussed in this article will focus on the nanoproble-enhanced colorimetric detection and surface enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） detection of biomarkers or biomolecules such as proteins and DNAs. The understanding of factors controlling the biomolecular interactions is essential for the design of SERS nanoprobes with theranostic functions.