Terahertz conductivity mapping of thin films on smart textiles.

Smart textiles that promise to become sensors and actuators for multiple applications are an active area of research. Conductive textiles formed by coating a fabric with a conductive film will play a key role in such applications. Here we present contactless mapping of the terahertz (THz) conductivity of thin conductive films deposited on textiles.

Impact of thermal annealing and laser treatment on the morphology and optical responses of mono- and bi-metallic plasmonic honeycomb lattice.

Plasmonic nanoparticle arrays with a specific lattice arrangement can support surface lattice resonances (SLRs). SLR exhibits a sharp spectral peak and finds many applications including optical sensing and plasmonic lasers. To optimize SLR for application, a robust method that allows the mass production of plasmonic nanoparticle arrays with refined particle morphology and well-defined lattice arrangement is required.

Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells on Fabrics as Large-Scale Detectors for Textile Personal Protective Equipment in Active Laser Safety.

Laser safety is starting to play an increasingly important role, especially when the laser is used as a tool. Passive laser safety systems quickly reach their limits and, in some cases, provide inadequate protection. To counteract this, various active systems have been developed.

Copper Iodide on Spacer Fabrics as Textile Thermoelectric Device for Energy Generation.

The integration of electronic functionalities into textiles for use as wearable sensors, energy harvesters, or coolers has become increasingly important in recent years. A special focus is on efficient thermoelectric materials. Copper iodide as a p-type thermoelectrically active, nontoxic material is attractive for energy harvesting and energy generation because of its transparency and possible high-power factor.

Porous spherical gold nanoparticles a laser induced process.

Nanoparticles consisting of a mixture of several metals and also porous nanoparticles due to their special structure exhibit properties that find applications in spectroscopic detection or catalysis. Different approaches of top down or bottom up technologies exist for the fabrication of such particles. We present a novel combined approach for the fabrication of spherical porous gold nanoparticles on low-cost glass substrates under ambient conditions using a UV-laser induced particle preparation process with subsequent wet chemical selective etching.

Absolute EUV reflectivity measurements using a broadband high-harmonic source and an in situ single exposure reference scheme.

We present a tabletop setup for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflection spectroscopy in the spectral range from 40 to 100 eV by using high-harmonic radiation. The simultaneous measurements of reference and sample spectra with high energy resolution provide precise and robust absolute reflectivity measurements, even when operating with spectrally fluctuating EUV sources. The stability and sensitivity of EUV reflectivity measurements are crucial factors for many applications in attosecond science, EUV spectroscopy, and nano-scale tomography.

Biomimic Vein-Like Transparent Conducting Electrodes with Low Sheet Resistance and Metal Consumption.

In this contribution, inspired by the excellent resource management and material transport function of leaf veins, the electrical transport function of metallized leaf veins is mimicked from the material transport function of the vein networks. By electroless copper plating on real leaf vein networks with copper thickness of only several hundred nanometre up to several micrometre, certain leaf veins can be converted to transparent conductive electrodes with an ultralow sheet resistance 100 times lower than that of state-of-the-art indium tin oxide thin films, combined with a broadband optical transmission of above 80% in the UV-VIS-IR range. Additionally, the resource efficiency of the vein-like electrode is characterized by the small amount of material needed to build up the networks and the low copper consumption during metallization.

Enhanced sensitivity in single-mode silicon nitride stadium resonators at visible wavelengths.

The marker-free and noninvasive detection of small traces of analytes in aqueous solution using integrated optical resonators is an emerging technique within bioanalytics. Here, we present a single-mode silicon-nitride stadium resonator operating at the red edge of the visible spectrum, showing sensitivities larger than 200 nm/RIU and transmission dips with extinction ratios of more than 15 dB. We introduce a mathematical model that allows analyzing of the resonator sensitivity using the properties of the guided mode only.

Spectrally resolved cavity ring down measurement of high reflectivity mirrors using a supercontinuum laser source.

We investigate a cavity ring down setup that offers the possibility to measure the spectrally resolved reflectivities of high reflectivity mirrors. The setup consists of a resonator (ring down cavity) and an intensified CCD camera system combined with a spectrograph for spectral resolution. A commercial supercontinuum laser (350-1750 nm) is applied as a compact excitation source.