We realized and experimentally tested a conceptually new kind of electrically thin absorbers of electromagnetic waves. The idea is to utilize a single layer of precisely designed meta-atoms. This allows one to design an absorber with unprecedentedly small thickness. The absorber implies absence of a ground plane. High efficiency of the realized structure in the S band is demonstrated. The conceptual idea of the proposed absorber can find many applications especially at optical frequencies.
Ultrathin nanopore membranes based on 2D materials have demonstrated ultimate resolution toward DNA sequencing. Among them, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) shows long-term stability as well as superior sensitivity enabling high throughput performance. The traditional method of fabricating nanopores with nanometer precision is based on the use of focused electron beams in transmission electron microscope (TEM). This nanopore fabrication process is time-consuming, expensive, not scalable and hard to control below 1 nm. Here, we exploited the electrochemical activity of MoS2 and developed a convenient and scalable method to controllably make nanopores in single-layer MoS2 with sub-nanometer precision using electrochemical reaction (ECR). The electrochemical reaction on the surface of single-layer MoS2 is initiated at the location of defects or single atom vacancy, followed by the successive removals of individual atoms or unit cells from single-layer MoS2 lattice and finally formation of a nanopore. Step-like features in the ionic current through the growing nanopore provide direct feedback on the nanopore size inferred from a widely used conductance vs. pore size model. Furthermore, DNA translocations can be detected in-situ when as-fabricated MoS2 nanopores are used. The atomic resolution and accessibility of this approach paves the way for mass production of nanopores in 2D membranes for potential solid-state nanopore sequencing.
Wide-angle optical functionality is crucial for implementation of advanced imaging and image projection devices. Conventionally, wide-angle operation is attained by complicated assembly of multiple optical elements. Recent advances in nanophotonics have led to metasurface lenses or metalenses, a new class of ultra-thin planar lenses utilizing subwavelength nanoantennas to gain full control of the phase, amplitude, and/or polarization of light. Here we present a novel metalens design capable of performing diffraction-limited focusing and imaging over an unprecedented > 170 degree angular field of view (FOV). The lens is monolithically integrated on a one-piece flat substrate and involves only a single layer of metasurface that corrects third-order Seidel aberrations including coma, astigmatism, and field curvature. The metalens further features a planar focal plane, which enables considerably simplified system architectures for applications in imaging and projection. We fabricated the metalens using Huygens meta-atoms operating at 5.2 micron wavelength and experimentally demonstrated aberration-free focusing and imaging over the entire FOV. The design concept is generic and can be readily adapted to different meta-atom geometries and wavelength ranges to meet diverse application demands.
We report the observation of optical second harmonic generation (SHG) in single-layer indium selenide (InSe). We measure a second harmonic signal of $>10^3$ $textrm{cts/s}$ under nonresonant excitation using a home-built confocal microscope and a standard pulsed pico-second laser. We demonstrate that polarization-resolved SHG serves as a fast, non-invasive tool to determine the crystal axes in single-layer InSe and to relate the sharp edges of the flake to the armchair and zigzag edges of the crystal structure. Our experiment determines these angles to an accuracy better than $pm$ $0.2^{circ}$. Treating the two-dimensional material as a nonlinear polarizable sheet, we determine a second-order nonlinear sheet polarizability $| chi_{textrm{sheet}}^{(2)}|=(17.9 pm 11.0)times 10^{-20}$ $textrm{m}^2 textrm{V}^{-1}$ for single-layer InSe, corresponding to an effective nonlinear susceptibility value of $| chi_textrm{eff}^{(2)}| approx (223 pm 138) times 10^{-12}$ $textrm{m} textrm{V}^{-1}$ accounting for the sheet thickness ($textrm{d} approx 0.8$ $textrm{nm}$). We demonstrate that the SHG technique can also be applied to encapsulated samples to probe their crystal orientations. The method is therefore suitable for creating high quality van der Waals heterostructures with control over the crystal directions.
We present a pair of optimized objective lenses with long working distances of 117~mm and 65~mm respectively that offer diffraction limited performance for both Cs and Rb wavelengths when imaging through standard vacuum windows. The designs utilise standard catalog lens elements to provide a simple and cost-effective solution. Objective 1 provides $mathrm{NA}=0.175$ offering 3~$mu$m resolution whilst objective 2 is optimized for high collection efficiency with $mathrm{NA}=0.29$ and 1.8~$mu$m resolution. This flexible design can be further extended for use at shorter wavelengths by simply re-optimising the lens separations.
We study extreme events occurring in the transverse $(x,y)$ section of the field emitted by a broad-area semiconductor laser with a saturable absorber. The spatio-temporal events on which we perform the statistical analysis are identified as maxima of the field intensity in the 3D space $(x,y,t)$. We identify regions in the parameter space where extreme events are more likely to occur and we study the connection of those extreme events with the cavity solitons that are known to exist in the same system, both stationary and self-pulsing.