Highly Sensitive THz Refractive Index Sensor Based on Folded Split-Ring Metamaterial Graphene Resonators

Plasmonics - A highly sensitive absorption-based sensor based on folded split-ring metamaterial graphene resonators (FSRMGRs) is designed, and its biomedical application in terahertz (THz) spectrum...     

A High-Performance Refractive Index Sensor Based on Fano Resonance in Si Split-Ring Metasurface

We present a high-performance refractive index sensor based on Fano resonance with a figure of merit (FOM) about 56.5 in all-dielectric metasurface which consists of a periodically arranged silicon rings with two equal splits dividing them into pairs of arcs of different lengths. A Fano resonance with quality factor ~133 and spectral contrast ratio ~100% arises from destructive interference of two antiphase electric dipoles in the two arcs of the split-ring. We can turn on and/or off the Fano resonance with a modulation depth nearly 100% at the operating wavelength of 1067 nm by rotating the polarization of incident light. We believe that our results will open up avenues for the development of applications using Fano resonance with dynamically controllability such as biochemical sensors, optical switching, and modulator.     

Quad-Band Terahertz Absorber Based on Dipolar Resonances of Metamaterial Resonator

Plasmonics - A novel design of a quad-band metamaterial absorber, which consisted of only a metallic resonator on top of a dielectric spacing layer and a metallic board on the bottom, is presented...     

Plasmon-Induced Transparency and Refractive Index Sensing Based on a Trapezoid Cavity Coupled with a Hexagonal Resonator

Plasmonics - Tunable plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) effect is studied in a plasmonic device on the basis of the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure which consists of trapezoid and hexagonal...     

A Study of Sensitivity Improved Probe Using Hyperbolic Metamaterial for Optical Fiber SPR (OFSPR)-based Refractive Index Sensor

Plasmonics - In this work, we theoretically study the plasmonic behavior of Ag and Au with a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) and propose a numerical simulation of a D-shaped surface plasmon resonance...     

Analysis of a Single Solid Core Flat Fiber Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor

Plasmonics - In this article, a single solid core flat fiber (SSCFF) refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed and analyzed numerically using the finite element...     

Plasmonic Band Gap: Role of the Slit Width in 1D Metallic Grating on Higher Refractive Index Substrate

This paper reports the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and associated plasmonic band gap (PBG) while using TM plane wave interacting with 1D metallic grating on higher refractive index GaP substrate. A simple method is introduced to estimate the PBG which is crucial for many plasmonic devices. The PBG is estimated by measuring the transmission spectra obtained through the plasmonic grating structures when slit width is varied while periodicity and the thickness of the gold (Au) film remained fixed. The PBG is observed for the grating devices whose slit width is less than one third of the periodicity which is caused by the presence of a higher plasmonic mode. The PBG is absent for the grating device whose slit width is slightly less than half and greater than one third of the periodicity. Such grating devices support only a fundamental plasmonic mode because the profile/shape of the slit in the grating device is more like a sinusoidal nature. Furthermore, such grating offers intermediate scattering to the incident light and the SPP as well which in turn couple more incident energy to the SPPs. Far-field modelling results also support the results obtained through experiment.

     

Altering the Substrate Specificity of Organophosphorus Hydrolase for Enhanced Hydrolysis of Chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most popular pesticides used for agriculture crop protection, and widespread contamination is a potential concern. However, chlorpyrifos is hydrolyzed almost 1,000-fold slower than the preferred substrate, paraoxon, by organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), an enzyme that can degrade a broad range of organophosphate pesticides. We have recently demonstrated that directed evolution can be used to generate OPH variants with up to 25-fold improvement in hydrolysis of methyl parathion. The obvious question and challenge are whether similar success could be achieved with this poorly hydrolyzed substrate, chlorpyrifos. For this study, five improved variants were selected from two rounds of directed evolution based on the formation of clear haloes on Luria-Bertani plates overlaid with chlorpyrifos. One variant, B3561, exhibited a 725-fold increase in the k_cat/K_m value for chlorpyrifos hydrolysis as well as enhanced hydrolysis rates for several other OP compounds tested. Considering that wild-type OPH hydrolyzes paraoxon at a rate close to the diffusion control limit, the 39-fold improvement in hydrolysis of paraoxon by B3561 suggests that this variant is one of the most efficient enzymes available to attack a wide spectrum of organophosphate nerve agents.     

Plasmonic Coupling Effects on the Refractive Index Sensitivities of Plane Au-Nanosphere-Cluster Sensors

Plasmonic coupling effects (between neighboring components) are able to red shift the peak wavelengths of dipolar-localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and increase the corresponding refractive index sensitivity of nanoparticle sensors. The coupling effects on plane Au-nanosphere-cluster (including nanosphere dimer, trimer, pentamer, and heptamer) sensors are numerically investigated by finite element method (FEM). We found that the coupling does not violate the quadratic response characteristics of LSPR peak wavelengths, hence the linear responses of the sensitivities to the bulk refractive index of Au cluster sensors. Yet, for nanosphere dimer sensors, they contribute to the exponential decrease of sensitivities with their gap distances, which follow the universal plasmon ruler behavior. The amplitude of their fractional sensitivity shift is revealed to be bulk refractive index independent, which is different from that of their fractional LSPR peak wavelength shift. These are analytically explained well in terms of an effective nanoparticle model. The present work also gives an upper sensitivity limit for Au nanosphere dimer systems and provides a method to estimate the interparticle separation between the two component nanospheres of the dimer.

     

Optimizing the Refractive Index Sensitivity of Plasmonically Coupled Gold Nanoparticles

Plasmonics - The possibility to enhance the local refractive index sensitivity using plasmonic coupling between spherical gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) has been investigated. A strong and distinct...     

The C-terminal Tails of the Bacterial Chaperonin GroEL Stimulate Protein Folding by Directly Altering the Conformation of a Substrate Protein

Many essential cellular proteins fold only with the assistance of chaperonin machines like the GroEL-GroES system of Escherichia coli. However, the mechanistic details of assisted protein folding by GroEL-GroES remain the subject of ongoing debate. We previously demonstrated that GroEL-GroES enhances the productive folding of a kinetically trapped substrate protein through unfolding, where both binding energy and the energy of ATP hydrolysis are used to disrupt the inhibitory misfolded states. Here, we show that the intrinsically disordered yet highly conserved C-terminal sequence of the GroEL subunits directly contributes to substrate protein unfolding. Interactions between the C terminus and the non-native substrate protein alter the binding position of the substrate protein on the GroEL apical surface. The C-terminal tails also impact the conformational state of the substrate protein during capture and encapsulation on the GroEL ring. Importantly, removal of the C termini results in slower overall folding, reducing the fraction of the substrate protein that commits quickly to a productive folding pathway and slowing several kinetically distinct folding transitions that occur inside the GroEL-GroES cavity. The conserved C-terminal tails of GroEL are thus important for protein folding from the beginning to the end of the chaperonin reaction cycle.     

生物组织的折射率对漫反射光分布的影响

采用杂合算法,讨论了折射率对不同吸收系数的生物组织漫反射光分布的影响。计算结果表明,在近源处生物组织的折射率越小,漫反射光模拟计算的相对误差越小;而在远离源处,其相对误差随折射率的增大而减小。同时也说明杂合模型不太适合模拟吸收生物组织的漫反射光分布。     

Dependence of Apertureless Scanning Near-Field Spectroscopy on Nanoscale Refractive Index Changes

We numerically investigate the spectral dependence of the electric field enhancement on a gold tip above PbTiO₃ on platinum systems by means of a finite element approach. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is verified to change with the incident angle, the tip radius, and the tip-sample distance as well as with the refractive index of the sample underneath the tip. The refractive index sensitivity reveals detectable variations of the LSPR peak’s wavelength and maximum field enhancement, respectively, large enough to discriminate, e.g., between ferroelectric and paraelectric PbTiO₃ in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) configuration.     

Effects of Refractive Index Variations on the Optical Transmittance Spectral Properties of the Nano-Hole Arrays

The 3D finite difference time domain technique was carried out to study the optical transmission properties of nano-hole arrays in the gold thin film supported by materials with different index of refraction in the visible and infrared regions. A series of perforated nano-hole structures on the gold film at different hole radius, hole depth of 100 nm, and structural periodicity of 400 nm were studied. It was found that transmission properties (i.e., intensity, FWHM, and resonance position) were strongly affected by hole radius and surrounding medium index of refraction. The maximum optical transmittance was observed as 31.9 % in a nano-hole array of hole radius of 125 nm and refractive index of 1.3. The maximum sensitivity of 300 nm/RIU was obtained at index of refraction of 1.7, whereas the minimum one was calculated as 110 nm/RIU in a nano-hole array of hole radius of 50 nm. It was also found that on increasing the hole radius from 50 to 125 nm, the spectral sensitivity was decreased, whereas the index sensitivity was increased on increasing the refractive index.     

The Influence of Element Deformation on Terahertz Mode Interaction in Split-Ring Resonator-Based Meta-Atoms

The interaction between terahertz (THz) resonance modes and element deformation in rectangular split-ring resonator (RSRR)-based meta-atoms (MAs) is investigated experimentally. Two types of RSRR-based MAs are presented: lateral-varied SRR (LV-SRR) and arm-twisted SRR (AT-SRR). When the distances from the gaps to the opposite sides of above meta-atoms increase from 10 to 40 μm, the inductive-capacitive (LC) resonance modes and dipole oscillation modes exhibit redshift behavior. The quality factor (Q factor) of LC resonance decreases while that of dipole oscillation modes increases. The THz mode interaction is subject to the distance between the gap and opposite side. An extension of lateral side contributes much more to the enhancement of Q factor of dipole oscillation mode than the twisted arms. The relationship between the near-field coupling effect and THz modes is revealed by the analysis of surface currents as well as the electric energy density distribution, as is in agreement with the experimental results.     

SCGE法检测敌敌畏对大鳞副泥鳅DNA损伤的研究

目的 采用SCGE技术检测敌敌畏对大鳞副泥鳅DNA的损伤效应.方法 设置敌敌畏0.64 μg/L、1.28μg./L、1.92μg/L、2.56μg/L、3.20μg/L 5个浓度组和一个空白对照组(15尾大鳞副泥鳅/组),通过单细胞凝胶电泳技术(scGE)研究各浓度敌敌畏处理组在分别处理l d、2 d、3 d后对大鳞...     

Ambiguous Refractive Index Sensitivity of Fano Resonance on an Array of Gold Nanoparticles

We investigate the optical response to refractive index changes of a Fano resonance occurring in a random array of gold nanoparticles supported on a glass substrate. The Fano resonance results from the interference between localized surface plasmon on a gold nanoparticle and the light reflected at the boundary of the glass substrate. We demonstrate that the sensitivity of the resonance to the refractive index of the surrounding medium is highly dependent on the excitation geometry and can assume either positive or negative values. We furthermore present a theoretical analysis explaining this behavior based on the rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) as well as the island film theory.

     

生物组织折射率的概念与测量方法评述

折射率作为描述介质光学特性的一个重要物理参量,它在组织光学理论中起着非常重要的作用.随着组织光学研究的深入,生物组织折射率的概念也在不断地完善和发展.本文将主要介绍生物组织折射率的基本概念和测量手段的研究进展情况,明确了生物组织折射率的概念,评述了现有测量方法的优缺点,希望为生物组织折射率问题的进一步研究提供有益参考.     

螺旋对称病毒衣壳参数的研究

本文从数学角度分析和研究了螺旋对称病毒衣壳参数、整理出衣壳参数２０多个,对每一个参数的概念、含义等给予了明确的认定。提示了参数间的关系,推导出了一些计算参数值的公式。