Optical Fiber, Nanomaterial, and THz-Metasurface-Mediated Nano-Biosensors: A Review

The increasing use of nanomaterials and scalable, high-yield nanofabrication process are revolutionizing the development of novel biosensors. Over the past decades, researches on nanotechnology-mediated biosensing have been on the forefront due to their potential application in healthcare, pharmaceutical, cell diagnosis, drug delivery, and water and air quality monitoring. The advancement of nanoscale science relies on a better understanding of theory, manufacturing and fabrication practices, and the application specific methods. The topology and tunable properties of nanoparticles, a part of nanoscale science, can be changed by different manufacturing processes, which separate them from their bulk counterparts. In the recent past, different nanostructures, such as nanosphere, nanorods, nanofiber, core–shell nanoparticles, nanotubes, and thin films, have been exploited to enhance the detectability of labelled or label-free biological molecules with a high accuracy. Furthermore, these engineered-materials-associated transducing devices, e.g., optical waveguides and metasurface-based scattering media, widened the horizon of biosensors over a broad wavelength range from deep-ultraviolet to far-infrared. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the major scientific achievements in nano-biosensors based on optical fiber, nanomaterials and terahertz-domain metasurface-based refractometric, labelled and label-free nano-biosensors.

Asymmetric topological pumping in nonparaxial photonics

Topological photonics was initially inspired by the quantum-optical analogy between the Schrödinger equation for an electron wavefunction and the paraxial equation for a light beam. Here, we reveal an unexpected phenomenon in topological pumping observed in arrays of nonparaxial optical waveguides where the quantum-optical analogy becomes invalid. We predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an asymmetric topological pumping when the injected field transfers from one side of the waveguide array to the other side whereas the reverse process is unexpectedly forbidden. Our finding could open an avenue for exploring topological photonics that enables nontrivial topological phenomena and designs in photonics driven by nonparaxiality.

Accomplishments in Integrated Nonlinear Optics using Silicon Microring CROWs (Project Report 0642603-Y5)

This NSF-funded project is a five-year (60 months) CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) unified research and education development program. The project’s focus is the science, engineering and applications of low-power (milliwatt class) nonlinear optics using CROWs. Coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) are linear sequences of micro-resonators fabricated on a chip that guide light from one end of the chain to the other by nearest-neighbor coupling.

Simulation of switchers for CNOT-gates based on optical waveguide interaction with coupled mode theory

The paper is devoted to simulation of interactions in the system of two symmetrical slab optical waveguides, that guide exactly two guided modes with the aim to use the directional coupler as a switcher for CNOT gate in the waveguide model of quantum-like computations. The coupling mode theory is used to solve the system of Maxwell equations. The asymptotic analysis is applied to simplify the system of differential equations, so an approximate analytic solution can be found. The solution obtained is used for the quick directional coupler parameters adjusting algorithm, so the power exchange in the system occurs as that of correctly working CNOT-gate switcher. Moreover, the finite difference method is used to solve the stricter system of equations, that additionally takes into account the process of power exchange between different order guided modes, so the computational error of the device can be estimated. It was obtained, that the possible size of the device may not exceed 1 mm in the largest dimension, while the computational error does not exceed 3%.