NanoPlasmonics, Microphotonics & Imaging

Silicon photonic switches have been developed for fast and low-cost optical switching. However most of demonstration is still limited in unicast operation. In this project, we develop a silicon photonic switch that is capable of multicast switching. We have implemented silicon photonic switches with movable waveguide couplers that can control power splitting ratio precisely. The switch has 4x20 ports, fast switching time (<9.6 us), low optical insertion loss (<4.0 dB), and small footprint (1.2 mm x 4.5 mm). We have demonstrated 1- to-2 and 1-to-4 multicast operation with the...

Amyloid beta (Aβ) is one of most crucial neuropathological biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Up to date, the relation between the progress of the disorder and the interchange of Aβ level in the blood is still controversial; however, increasing evidence for transport of Aβ across the brain blood barrier (BBB) provides the linkage between concentrations of Aβ in central nervous system (CNS) and blood plasma. Hence, quantifying the Aβ level in blood plasma is considered as an emerging diagnostic method for AD. Here, we describe an integrated molecular diagnostic system (iMDx) for...

Controlling and concentrating infrared radiation has the potential to significantly impact infrared sensors, thermal imaging devices, as well as heat conversion systems. As most molecules have vibrational modes in the infrared range, they reradiate a great portion of the incident radiation instead of efficiently transmitting it. As a promising alternative, plasmonic gratings not only offer low-loss transmission of infrared radiation, but also compress the long infrared wavelengths. This localization effect greatly improves the sensing resolution and offers high-intensity fields at...

Compared with single-component nanocrystals, core-shell nanocrystals show better performance in various areas, such as energy harvesting and storage, catalysis, sensing and functionalized targeted cell therapy. The solution-based fabrication process is the most common strategy for synthesizing core-shell structures. However, the complex and difficult-to-scale fabrication procedures severely reduce their practical applications. Besides, the thermodynamically driven process of the fabrication of core-shell nanostructures possesses several constraints on their size and geometry, the...