C-band operating plasmonic sensor with a high Q-factor/figure of merit based on a silicon nano-ring.

In this paper, we take advantage of the high refractive index property of silicon to design a practical and sensitive plasmonic sensor on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. It has been demonstrated that a label-free refractive index sensor with sensitivity up to 1124 nm/RIU can be obtained using a simple design of a silicon nano-ring with a concentric hexagonal plasmonic cavity. It has also been shown that, with optimum structural parameters, a quality factor (Q-factor) of 307 and a figure of merit (FOM) of 234 can be achieved, which are approximately 8 times and 5 times higher than the proposed sensors counterparts, respectively.

Integrated vortex beam emitter device for optical manipulation.

In this study, we provide a theoretical overview for the potential of the integrated vortex beam emitter (IVBE) in optical tweezer applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt in the literature to investigate the optical tweezing property of IVBE. The finite-difference time-domain numerical analysis technique has been utilized for the transverse optical trapping calculations.

Macrocyclic Cu(ii)-organophosphonate building block with room temperature magnetic ordering.

Engineering a copper coordination sphere with organoimine ligands and tuning the organophosphonate protonation states produced [{Cu(2,2'-bpy)}2(HO3P(CH2)8PO3H2)4] (1) and [{Cu(terpy)}2(2,7-FDA-H2)2]·(2,7-FDA-H4)(2H2O) (2) (2,7-FDA-H4 = 2,7-fluorenonediphosphonic acid) macrocyclic copper-organophosphonate building blocks. 1 exhibits high temperature magnetic ordering, while 2 is paramagnetic. The structures were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction.