Oxygen Vacancies-Induced Antifouling Photoelectrochemical Aptasensor for Highly Sensitive and Selective Determination of α-Fetoprotein.

Accurate measurement of cancer markers in urine is a convenient method for tumor monitoring. However, the concentration of cancer markers in urine is so low that it is difficult to achieve their measurement. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensors are a promising technology to realize the detection of trace cancer markers due to their high sensitivity.

Theoretical study on photocatalytic performance of ZnO/CN heterostructure towards high efficiency water splitting.

The construction of van der Waals heterostructures offers effective boosting of the photocatalytic performance of two-dimensional materials. In this study, which uses the first-principles method, the electronic and absorptive properties of an emerging ZnO/CN heterostructure are systematically explored to determine the structure's photocatalytic potential. The results demonstrate that ZnO and CN form a type-II band alignment heterostructure with a reduced band gap, and hence superior absorption in the visible region.

High-Performance Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates Based on the ZnO/Ag Core-Satellite Nanostructures.

Recently, hierarchical hybrid structures based on the combination of semiconductor micro/nanostructures and noble metal nanoparticles have become a hot research topic in the area of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this work, two core-satellite nanostructures of metal oxide/metal nanoparticles were successfully introduced into SERS substrates, assembling monodispersed small silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on large polydispersed ZnO nanospheres (p-ZnO NSs) or monodispersed ZnO nanospheres (m-ZnO NSs) core. The p-ZnO NSs and m-ZnO NSs were synthesized by the pyrolysis method without any template.

Anisotropic terahertz transmission induced by the external magnetic field in LaCaMnO film.

A systemic investigation of the terahertz (THz) transmission of LaCaMnO film on the (001)-oriented NdGaO substrate under external magnetic field and low temperature have been performed. The significant THz absorption difference between the out-of-plane and the in-plane magnetic field direction is observed, which is consistent with the electrical transport measurement using the standard four-probe technique. Furthermore, we find that the complex THz conductivities can be reproduced in terms of the Drude Smith equation as the magnetic field is perpendicular to the film plane, whereas it deviates from this model when the in-plane magnetic field is applied.

Surface plasmon resonances boost the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect in a CoFeB slab covered by a subwavelength gold grating for highly sensitive detectors.

Herein, we have theoretically investigated the sensing performance-including enormous increase in the sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM)-of a magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance (MOSPR) sensor, which is based on the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (T-MOKE) in a ferromagnet coupled with a noble-metal grating. Specifically, we propose to use a CoFeB magnetic slab covered by a subwavelength, periodic gold grating configured as a magnetoplasmonic heterostructure. In such a device, sharp, Fano-like T-MOKE signals of high amplitude can be achieved due to the surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) excited in the presence of the gold grating, especially after optimizing the grating period.

Off-Resonant Absorption Enhancement in Single Nanowires via Graded Dual-Shell Design.

Single nanowires (NWs) are of great importance for optoelectronic applications, especially solar cells serving as powering nanoscale devices. However, weak off-resonant absorption can limit its light-harvesting capability. Here, we propose a single NW coated with the graded-index dual shells (DSNW).

Modeling and Selection of RF Thermal Plasma Hot-Wall Torch for Large-Scale Production of Nanopowders.

Fouling is a great problem that significantly affects the continuous operation for large-scale radio-frequency (RF) thermal plasma synthesizing nanopowders. In order to eliminate or weaken the phenomenon, numerical simulations based on FLUENT software were founded to investigate the effect of operation parameters, including feeding style of central gas and sheath gas, on plasma torches. It is shown that the tangential feeding style of central gas brings serious negative axial velocity regions, which always forces the synthesized nanopowders to "back-mix", and further leads to the fouling of the quartz tube.

Free-standing double-layer terahertz band-pass filters fabricated by femtosecond laser micro-machining.

We report on the fabrication and transmission properties of free-standing single-layer and double-layer THz bandpass filters. These filters are fabricated on aluminum foils using femtosecond laser micro-machining. The aluminum foils are periodically patterned with cross apertures with a total area of 1.

High-mode spoof SPP of periodic metal grooves for ultra-sensitive terahertz sensing.

We report terahertz surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing based on prism-coupling to the spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) mode existing on periodically grooved metal films. It was demonstrated that, except for the fundamental mode of the SSPP, there was also a higher mode SSPP wave when the depth of groove was larger. Both fundamental and high-order modes of SSPP could be used for terahertz sensing.

Plasmonic corrugated cylinder-cone terahertz probe.

The spoof surface plasmon polariton (SPP) effect on the electromagnetic field distribution near the tip of a periodically corrugated metal cylinder-cone probe working at the terahertz regime was studied. We found that radially polarized terahertz radiation could be coupled effectively through a spoof SPP into a surface wave and propagated along the corrugated surface, resulting in more than 20× electric field enhancement near the tip of probe. Multiple resonances caused by the antenna effect were discussed in detail by finite element computation and theoretical analysis of dispersion relation for spoof SPP modes.