We fabricate photonic crystal slab microcavities embedded with GaAs quantum dots by electron beam lithography and droplet epitaxy. The Purcell effect of exciton emission of the quantum dots is confirmed by the micro photoluminescence measurement. The resonance wavelengths, widths, and polarization are consistent with numerical simulation results.

A three-dimensional model of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum double rings in the lateral static electric field is investigated theoretically. The eigenvalue problem with the effective-mass approximation is solved by means of the finite-element method. The energy levels and wave functions of quantum-confined electrons and heavy holes are obtained and show an agreement with our previous theoretical and experimental studies. It is shown in the approximation of neglecting the Coulomb attraction between the electron and heavy hole that a relatively large Stark shift of exciton emission of 4 meV is attainable with an applied electric field of 0.7 kV/cm.

A theoretical investigation is carried out into the cross phase modulation (XPM) in an asymmetric double AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wells structure with a common continuum. It is found that, combining resonant tunneling-induced transparency and constructive interference in the third-order Kerr effect, a giant XPM can be achieved with vanishing linear and nonlinear absorptions, accompanied by the velocities of the probe and signal fields being matched. Furthermore, this giant XPM could induce a \pi-phase shift at a single-photon level which is favorable for the applications in two-qubit quantum logic gates.

A novel atomic force microscope (AFM) for large samples to be measured in liquid is developed. An innovative laser beam tracking system is proposed to eliminate the tracking and feedback errors. The open probe design of the AFM makes the operation in liquid convenient and easy. A standard 1200-lines/mm grating and a sheet of filter paper are imaged respectively in air and liquid to confirm its performance. The corrosion behavior of aluminum surface in 1-mol/L NaOH solution is further investigated by the AFM. Experimental results show that the system can realize wide range (20 × 20 (\mu m)) scanning for large samples both in air and liquid, while keeping nanometer order resolution in liquid by eliminating the tracking and feedback error.

Optical methods and MTT method are used to characterize the antiproliferation effect of antitumor drug 9-aminoacridine (9AA) with and without silver nanoparticles. Intracellular surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra and fluorescent spectra of 9AA indicate the form of 9AA adsorbed on the surface of silver nanoparticles. Although both silver nanoparticles and antitumor drug can inhibit the growth of Hela cells, silver nanoparticles can slow down the antiproliferation effect on Hela cells at low concentration of antitumor drugs. Our experimental results suggest that silver nanoparticles may serve as slow-release drug carriers, which is important in antitumor drug delivery.

The irradiation of cells combined with the immunoconjugate of gold nanoparticles by the short pulse laser can make the plasma membrane be transiently permeabilized, which can be used to transfer exogenous molecules into the cells. We explore this technique as a novel gene transfection method for floating cells. Three different floating cells exposed to the laser are selectively transfected with fluorescein isothiocyanatedextran, antibody, and green fluorescent protein (GFP) coding plasmids, and the viability of cells are determined by propidium iodide. For fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran, the best transfection efficiency of 65% is obtained; for the antibody, it is 74%; whereas for the green fluorescent protein coding plasmids, a very small transfection efficiency is gained. If the transfection efficiency is improved, gold nanoparticles will be very useful as mediator for gene transfection in living cells.

The cutoff characteristics of dielectric-filled circular holes embedded in a dispersive plasmonic medium are investigated. Since two distinctive operating modes, surface plasmon polariton and circular waveguide modes, can exist in the slow and fast wave regions, respectively, the cutoff characteristics for each are separately investigated for linear and radial polarizations of the guided fields. As a result, the cutoff wavelengths for the linear and radial polarizations with very small subwavelength hole radii are found to be limited by the plasma resonance wavelength and plasma wavelength, which in turn are dependent and independent, respectively, of the dielectric constant of the dielectric filler material.

We study the sensing properties of an intensity-modulated fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor using radially polarized beam (RPB). Because of the rotational symmetry of fiber and RPB, surface plasmon can be excited more efficiently at the sensor surface, which results in an obvious improvement of the sensitivity. Our experiments demonstrate that the sensitivity in the case of RPB illumination is three times higher than that of linearly polarized beam illumination.

High-temperature annealing and pre-annealing lift-off procedures are employed to improve the solution processible technique for the fabrication of one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) metallic photonic crystals (MPCs) based on colloidal gold nanoparticles. This enables the successful fabrication of gold nanowires or nanocylinder array structures with the photoresist template removed completely, which is crucial for the application of MPCs in biosensors and optoelectronic devices. Microscopic measurements show homogeneous 1D and 2D photonic structures with an area as large as 100 mm2. Plasmonic resonance of the gold nanostructures and its coupling with the resonance mode of the planar waveguide underneath the photonic structures are observed, implying the excellent optical properties of this kind of MPCs based on the improved fabrication technique.

Cu₂O particles cube with ordered pores are electrodeposited by using colloidal crystal template method. The shape of Cu₂O cube particle is partly determined by its growing habit. Therefore, Cu₂O cube particles with ordered pores are fabricated instead of three dimensional inverse opal structures.

Ultraviolet photo-lithography is employed to introduce two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PC) structure on the top surface of GaN-based light emitting diode (LED). PC patterns are transferred to 460-nm-thick transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching. Light intensity of PC-LED can be enhanced by 38% comparing with the one without PC structure. Rigorous coupled wave analysis method is performed to calculate the light transmission spectrum of PC slab. Simulation results indicate that total internal reflect angle which modulated by PC structure has been increased by 7°, which means that the light extraction efficiency is enhanced outstandingly.

Six high-index cores are embedded around the central solid core of the photonic crystal fiber to form a fiber embedded photonic crystal fiber (FEPCF), which is investigated based on the beam propagation method. In this structure, the Gaussian mode could be transferred to the ring mode. So FEPCF could used as a mode convertor.

A high-permittivity (high-k) material is applied as the gate dielectric layer in a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor to form a special electro-optic (EO) modulator. Both induced charge density and modulation efficiency in the proposed modulator are improved due to the special structure design and the application of the high-k material. The device has an ultra-compact dimension of 691 \mu m in length.

The spontaneous emission rate of two interacting excited atoms near a dielectric interface is studied using the photon closed-orbit theory and the dipole image method. The total emission rate of one atom during the emission process is calculated as a function of the distance between the atom and the interface. The results suggest that the spontaneous emission rate depends not only on the atomic-interface distances, but also on the orientation of the two atomic dipoles and the initial distance between the two atoms. The oscillation in the spontaneous emission rate is caused by the interference between the outgoing electromagnetic wave emitted from one atom and other waves arriving at this atom after traveling along various classical orbits. Each peak in the Fourier transformed spontaneous emission rate corresponds with one action of photon classical orbit.

We propose an improved algorithm based on fractal dimension and third-order characterization to detect dim target with cluttered background in an infrared (IR) image. We also illustrate the performance and efficiency comparisons between the presented algorithm and the traditional fractal detection method on real IR images. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust and efficient for IR dim target detection.

As one of the next generation imaging spectrometers, interferential spectrometer has been paid much attention. With traditional spectrum compression methods, the hyperspectral images generated by interferential spectrometer can only be protected with better visual quality in spatial domain, but its optical applications in Fourier domain are often ignored. So the relation between the distortion in Fourier domain and the compression in spatial domain is analyzed in this letter. Based on this analysis, a novel coding scheme is proposed, which can compress data in spatial domain while reducing the distortion in Fourier domain. The bitstream of set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) is truncated by adaptively lifting the rate-distortion slopes of zerotrees according to the priorities of optical path difference (OPD) based on rate-distortion optimization theory. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve better performance in Fourier domain while maintaining the image quality in spatial domain.

We study the high numerical aperture focusing properties and typical applications of axially-symmetric polarized beams (ASPBs) with high polarization orders. We calculate the field distribution near focus of an aplanatic system for incident ASPBs with different polarization orders and initial azimuthal angles, and based on the simulation results, we find some unique focusing properties of the beams, such as ever on-axis energy null, strong longitudinal field, and flowerlike intensity distribution at focus. In addition, we can manipulate the three-dimensional (3D) focused field distribution flexibly by use of diffractive optical elements (DOEs), which will give rise to some interesting applications, and we also discuss possible applications and present an example of a 3D optical chain at last.

A high-speed high-sensitivity swept source optical coherence tomography (SSOCT) system using a high speed swept laser source is developed. Non-uniform discrete fourier transform (NDFT) method is introduced in the SSOCT system for data processing. Frequency calibration method based on a Mach-Zender interferometer (MZI) and conventional data interpolation method is also adopted in the system for comparison. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images from SSOCT based on the NDFT method, the MZI method, and the interpolation method are illustrated. The axial resolution of the SSOCT based on the NDFT method is comparable to that of the SSOCT system using MZI calibration method and conventional data interpolation method. The SSOCT system based on the NDFT method can achieve higher signal intensity than that of the system based on the MZI calibration method and conventional data interpolation method because of the better utilization of the power of source.

Synchronization of chaotic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is achieved by external chaotic signal modulation successfully. Simulation indicates that we can get chaos synchronization if the intensity of external chaotic signal is large enough. First of all, we use direct current modulation to achieve the chaos of VCSELs, and determine the laser’s chaotic state by analyzing time series of the output and the corresponding power spectrum. And then we achieve synchronization of the two chaotic systems by external chaotic signal parameter modulation. We also find that the larger the modulation intensity is, the easier it is to achieve synchronization for chaotic VCSELs. This approach can also be applied to systems with a number of modulated lasers.

The investigation of nonlinear optical characteristics of ethanol solution doped with silver nanoparticles is presented. A large thermal-induced third-order nonlinear refractive index up to –1.941×10^?7 cm²/W is obtained from the mixed solution under 488-nm continue wave (CW) laser irradiation, which may result from surface plasmon resonance (SPR) enhancement effect of silver nanoparticles as well as high thermo-optic coefficient and low thermal conductivity of ethanol. Obvious spatial self-phase modulation and influence of thermal-induced negative lens effect are observed when a beam propagates through this solution, indicating promising applications such as optical limiting, beam flattening, and so on.

A ZnO thin film covered by TiO₂ nanoparticles is prepared by electron beam evaporation. The structure and surface morphology of the sample are analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. Photoluminescence is used to investigate the fluorescent property of the ample. The results show that the ultraviolet (UV) emission of the ZnO thin film is greatly enhanced after it is covered by TiO₂ nanoparticles while the green emission is suppressed. The enhanced UV emission mainly results from the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between ZnO thin film and TiO₂ nanoparticles. This TiO₂-ZnO composite thin film can be used to fabricate high-efficiency UV emitters.

Nano-TiO₂ thin films are deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using TiO₂ ceramic target and characterized by X-ray diffractometer, atomic force microscope, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. The photocatalytic activity is evaluated by light-induced degradation of methyl orange solutions (5, 10, and 20 ppm) using a high pressure mercury lamp as the light source. The film is amorphous, and its energy gap is 3.02 eV. The photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange solution is the first-order reaction and the apparent reaction rate constants are 0.00369, 0.0024, and 0.00151 for the methyl orange solution concentrations of 5, 10, and 20 ppm, respectively.

A new dynamic model is developed for simulating the widely tunable grating assisted codirectional coupler with rear sampled grating reflector (GCSR) lasers. The gain section of the device is calculated in timedomain using traveling-wave method, while the transmission spectrum of the coupler and the reflection spectrum of the reflector are firstly simulated in frequency-domain, and then transformed into time-domain via digital filter approach. Both static and dynamic performances based on this model agree well with the published results. Compared with previous works, this new model is more efficient and applicable, especially in the dynamic simulation.

An investigation is made on the optical nonlinear characteristics of MgF₂ films containing Cu nanoparticles. When the Cu volume fraction is 0.1, at approximately \varepsilon_m+ 2\varepsilon_d= 0, the film exhibits a strong third-order optical nonlinear refractive coefficient of 1.0×10^-9 cm²/W, a nonlinear refractive index of about ?4.0×10^-7 esu, a third-order optical nonlinear response of about 6.8×10^-8 esu, and a figure of merit of about 1.0×10^-11. The result shows that the film may have potential applications in optoelectronic technology.

Tantalum pentoxide thin films are prepared by oblique angle electron beam evaporation. The influence of flux angle on the surface morphology and microstructure is investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Ta₂O₅ thin films are anisotropic with highly orientated nanostructure of slanted columns. The porous microstructure of the as-deposited films results in the decrease of effective refractive index and packing density with increasing deposition angle. The anisotropic structure results in optical birefringence. The in-plane birefringence increases with the increase of deposition angle and reaches the maximum of 0.055 at the deposition angle of 70°. Anisotropic microstructure and critical packing density are the two key factors to influence the in-plane birefringence.

We report the high speed scanning submicronic microscopy (SSM) using a low cost polymer microlens integrated at the extremity of an optical fiber. These microlenses are fabricated by a free-radical photopolymerization method. Using a polymer microlens with a radius of curvature of 250 nm, a sub-micrometric gold pattern is imaged experimentally by SSM. Different distances between the tip and the sample are used with a high scanning speed of 200 cm/s. In particular, metallic absorption contrasts are described with an optical spatial resolution of 250 nm at the wavelength of 532 nm. Moreover, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations concerning the focal lengths of microlenses with different geometries and heights support the experimental data.