Surface plasmon subwavelength optics

Surface plasmons are waves that propagate along the surface of a conductor. By altering the structure of a metal's surface, the properties of surface plasmons--in particular their interaction with light--can be tailored, which offers the potential for developing new types of photonic device. This could lead to miniaturized photonic circuits with length scales that are much smaller than those currently achieved. Surface plasmons are being explored for their potential in subwavelength optics, data storage, light generation, microscopy and bio-photonics.     

光学,明天更辉煌——写在北京理工大学光电工程系建系50周年

叙述了20世纪光学的发展历程．光学对人类社会的伟大贡献在于：20世纪初期相对论和量子力学二个最重大的发现都与光和光学相关；光学的研究和进展，特别是激光、光纤通信和光存储技术的发明，促进了信息社会的形成。20世纪，传统光学迈向现代光学，光子学和光子技术破门而出．可以预期，21世纪光子技术将成为信息化社会的另一主要支柱。科技实践表明：光学的发展历程是人类创造性思维历程的一部分．对光和光子的认识和利用每前进一步，人类社会就前进一大步。昨天的光学成就非凡，今天的光学欣欣向荣，明天的光学将更加辉煌。     

Controlling the dynamics of spontaneous emission from quantum dots by photonic crystals

Control of spontaneously emitted light lies at the heart of quantum optics. It is essential for diverse applications ranging from miniature lasers and light-emitting diodes, to single-photon sources for quantum information, and to solar energy harvesting. To explore such new quantum optics applications, a suitably tailored dielectric environment is required in which the vacuum fluctuations that control spontaneous emission can be manipulated. Photonic crystals provide such an environment: they strongly modify the vacuum fluctuations, causing the decay of emitted light to be accelerated or slowed down, to reveal unusual statistics, or to be completely inhibited in the ideal case of a photonic bandgap. Here we study spontaneous emission from semiconductor quantum dots embedded in inverse opal photonic crystals. We show that the spectral distribution and time-dependent decay of light emitted from excitons confined in the quantum dots are controlled by the host photonic crystal. Modified emission is observed over large frequency bandwidths of 10%, orders of magnitude larger than reported for resonant optical microcavities. Both inhibited and enhanced decay rates are observed depending on the optical emission frequency, and they are controlled by the crystals' lattice parameter. Our experimental results provide a basis for all-solid-state dynamic control of optical quantum systems.     

光子晶体的发展和应用

20世纪80年代末出现的光子晶体是一种具有光子带隙的新材料,它独特的性质使得光子晶体具有广泛的应用前景.该文介绍了三维光子晶体的制备技术,并综述了光子晶体的一些物理特性及在光学、微波方面的应用.     

Progress in photonic and optoelectronic active polymers and organic solids

The progress of the researches in photonic and optoelectronic active polymers and organic solids in recent two decades is reviewed with particular attention to the excellent achievements of Chinese scientists. The recent progress in the areas of conducting polymers, organic light-emitting diodes, photoelectric conversion material, material for information storage, and nonlinear optical polymers is introduced. The peculiarities of organic photonic and optoelectronic active materials are briefly compared with those of inorganic photonic and optoelectronic materials.     

基于磁光材料的磁可调石墨烯多带吸收特性

为了改善石墨烯的吸收性能,基于石墨烯的磁光效应,提出了一种采用磁性材料构成的光子晶体异质结构。该光学结构可使石墨烯实现多带吸收。吸收带的数目可通过改变光子晶体的周期数来调节。利用4×4传输矩阵法数值研究了该光子晶体异质结构的相关参数对石墨烯吸收率的影响。结果表明:石墨烯的吸收特性表现出一定的磁圆二色性。但通过调节费米能量,在外磁场的作用,左旋圆偏振光和右旋圆偏振光均可具有较高的吸收率。研究结果为偏振光学领域石墨烯基新型光子学器件的设计制作提供了理论依据。     

Ultafast organic nonlinear optical molecules and the realization of mesoscopic photonic devices

In the twentieth century, revolutionary changes took place in the human society and people’s life-style due to the improvement of the optoelectronic information technology based on the second-order nonlinear optical effects, such as the electro-optic effect, the second harmonic generation (SHG), and so on. Along with the rapid development of light information technology, new principles and methods of nonlinear optics are needed, and the third-order nonlinear optical effects attract great attention. The research progress of nonlinear optics is reviewed in this article. Our research work on the third-order nonlinear optical materials, ultrafast and low-power organic all-optical photonic crystal switching are introduced.     

先进能源储存和转换材料专刊社论

The ever-increasing environmental problems and energy challenges have called urgent demand for utilizing green, ef-ficient, and sustainable energy, thus promoting the develop-ment of new technologies associated with energy storage and conversion systems. Amongst a wealth of energy storage devices, Li/Na/K/Zn/Mg ion batteries, metal-air batteries, and lithium–sulfur/all-solid-state batteries together with su-percapacitors as advanced power sources have attracted con-siderable interest due to their conspicuous merits of high en-ergy density, long cycle life, and good rate capability. In the energy conversion systems, solar cells and fuel cells can be considered as mainstream renewable energy resources once their manufacturing cost has decreased to an affordable level. However, the developments of advanced power sources de-pend critically on advances in materials innovation. There-fore, to promote the practical applications of these promising systems, developing high-performance electrode materials has been taken into the center stage in current research areas from chemistry, physics, and materials science fields.     

新型压缩空气储能及其技术发展

压缩空气储能研究是目前绿电储能的重要科技前沿,主要为大规模绿电的存储转换及并网等问题,提供有效的解决方案。回顾了压缩空气储能的背景,介绍了传统压缩空气储能及其衍生技术的工作原理,分析了新型压缩空气储能的优缺点和应用范围、中外压缩空气储能的应用现状及其经济效益。基于此,提出了未来压缩空气储能的应用前景及发展趋势,为相关学者和方案决策人员提供参考。     

Nanomaterials for renewable hydrogen production, storage and utilization

An ever growing demand for energy coupled with increasing pollution is forcing us to seek environmentally clean alternative energy resources to substitute fossil fuels. The rapid development of nanomaterials has opened up new avenues for the conversion and utilization of renewable energy. This article reviews nanostructured materials designed for selected applications in renewable energy conversion and utilization. The review is based on the authors’ research, with particular focus on solar hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and hydrogen utilization. The topics include photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting and photocatalytic hydrogen production, solid-state hydrogen storage, and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). It is expected that the rational design of nanomaterials could play an important role in achieving a renewable energy based economy in the coming decades.     

Low-loss hollow-core silica/air photonic bandgap fibre

Photonic bandgap structures use the principle of interference to reflect radiation. Reflection from photonic bandgap structures has been demonstrated in one, two and three dimensions and various applications have been proposed. Early work in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre technology used a hexagonal structure surrounding the air core; this fibre was the first demonstration of light guided inside an air core of a photonic bandgap fibre. The potential benefits of guiding light in air derive from lower Rayleigh scattering, lower nonlinearity and lower transmission loss compared to conventional waveguides. In addition, these fibres offer a new platform for studying nonlinear optics in gases. Owing largely to challenges in fabrication, the early air-core fibres were only available in short lengths, and so systematic studies of loss were not possible. More recently, longer lengths of fibre have become available with reported losses of 1,000 dB km(-1). We report here the fabrication and characterization of long lengths of low attenuation photonic bandgap fibre. Attenuation of less than 30 dB km(-1) over a wide transmission window is observed with minimum loss of 13 dB km(-1) at 1,500 nm, measured on 100 m of fibre. Coupling between surface and core modes of the structure is identified as an important contributor to transmission loss in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibres.     

超短脉冲激光及其应用

评述了国际上超短脉冲激光技术的最新研究进展以及超短脉冲激光在超高速光通讯、海量信息存储、光合作用研究、化学反应过程研究等领域广泛的应用状况     

Stationary pulses of light in an atomic medium

Physical processes that could facilitate coherent control of light propagation are under active exploration. In addition to their fundamental interest, these efforts are stimulated by practical possibilities, such as the development of a quantum memory for photonic states. Controlled localization and storage of photonic pulses may also allow novel approaches to manipulating of light via enhanced nonlinear optical processes. Recently, electromagnetically induced transparency was used to reduce the group velocity of propagating light pulses and to reversibly map propagating light pulses into stationary spin excitations in atomic media. Here we describe and experimentally demonstrate a technique in which light propagating in a medium of Rb atoms is converted into an excitation with localized, stationary electromagnetic energy, which can be held and released after a controllable interval. Our method creates pulses of light with stationary envelopes bound to an atomic spin coherence, offering new possibilities for photon state manipulation and nonlinear optical processes at low light levels.     

Density functional theory calculations:A powerful tool to simulate and design high-performance energy storage and conversion materials

Searching for high-performance energy storage and conversion materials is currently regarded as an important approach to solve the energy crisis. As a powerful tool to simulate and design materials, the density functional theory (DFT) method has made great achievements in the field of energy storage and conversion. This review highlights the ways in which DFT calculations can be used to simulate and design high-performance materials for batteries, capacitors, and hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts.     

光子晶体的能带理论

光子晶体具有光子能带,并且光子能带可能存在光子禁带。我们通过运用光子晶体的能带和禁带理论.就能够控制光在晶体中的传播。光子晶体对光子有着特殊的物理性质,它在光传输和光学器件有着广泛的用途。本文主要概述了光子晶体的概念、能带理论、性质,及光子晶体和半导体的区别和联系。     

Functionalization of graphene materials by heteroatom-doping for energy conversion and storage

Recent development in nanoscience and nanotechnology has opened up new frontiers in materials science and engineering to create new materials for energy generation and storage. Owing to their earth abundance, low-cost, structural tunability, large-surface area, and unique physicochemical properties, graphitic carbon materials have attracted a great deal of attention for energy-related applications. However, the pristine graphene materials without functionalization is intractable (insoluble and infusible), which has hindered their practical applications. Therefore, considerable research effort has been devoted to the development of functionalized graphene materials with desirable properties for specific applications, including energy conversion and storage. It was demonstrated that functionalized graphene materials with tunable work functions were useful as charge-extraction materials to effectively improve solar cell performance while those with high electrocatalytic activities could be used as metal-free catalysts in fuel cells, metal-air batteries, water splitting and integrated energy systems. This article provides a timely focused review on the development of heteroatom-doped graphene materials for low-cost, but efficient, energy generation and storage.     

Hydrogenation of nanostructured semiconductors for energy conversion and storage

Nanostructured semiconductors have been researched intensively for energy conversion and storage applications in recent decades. Despite of tremendous find- ings and achievements, the performance of the devices resulted from the nanomaterials in terms of energy conversion efficiency and storage capacity needs further improvement to become economically viable for subsequent commercializa- tion. Hydrogenation is a simple, efficient, and cost-effective way for tailoring the electronic and morphological properties of the nanostructured materials. This work reviews a series of hydrogenated nanostructured materials was produced by the hydrogenation of a wide range of nanomaterials. These materials with improved inherent conductivity and changed characteristic lattice structure possess much enhanced per- formance for energy conversion application, e.g., photo- electrocatalytic production of hydrogen, and energy storage applications, e.g., lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors. The hydrogenation mechanisms as well as resultant properties responsible for the efficiency improvement are explored in details. This work provides guidance for researchers to use the hydrogenation technology to design functional materials.     

Efficient quantum computing using coherent photon conversion

Single photons are excellent quantum information carriers: they were used in the earliest demonstrations of entanglement and in the production of the highest-quality entanglement reported so far. However, current schemes for preparing, processing and measuring them are inefficient. For example, down-conversion provides heralded, but randomly timed, single photons, and linear optics gates are inherently probabilistic. Here we introduce a deterministic process--coherent photon conversion (CPC)--that provides a new way to generate and process complex, multiquanta states for photonic quantum information applications. The technique uses classically pumped nonlinearities to induce coherent oscillations between orthogonal states of multiple quantum excitations. One example of CPC, based on a pumped four-wave-mixing interaction, is shown to yield a single, versatile process that provides a full set of photonic quantum processing tools. This set satisfies the DiVincenzo criteria for a scalable quantum computing architecture, including deterministic multiqubit entanglement gates (based on a novel form of photon-photon interaction), high-quality heralded single- and multiphoton states free from higher-order imperfections, and robust, high-efficiency detection. It can also be used to produce heralded multiphoton entanglement, create optically switchable quantum circuits and implement an improved form of down-conversion with reduced higher-order effects. Such tools are valuable building blocks for many quantum-enabled technologies. Finally, using photonic crystal fibres we experimentally demonstrate quantum correlations arising from a four-colour nonlinear process suitable for CPC and use these measurements to study the feasibility of reaching the deterministic regime with current technology. Our scheme, which is based on interacting bosonic fields, is not restricted to optical systems but could also be implemented in optomechanical, electromechanical and superconducting systems with extremely strong intrinsic nonlinearities. Furthermore, exploiting higher-order nonlinearities with multiple pump fields yields a mechanism for multiparty mediation of the complex, coherent dynamics.     

表面等离子体亚波长光学的研究

表面等离子体激元是局域在金属表面的一种由自由电子和光子相互作用形成的混合激发态.改变金属表面的结构,SPPs与光相互作用的特性也会随之改变.所以,SPPs在光存储、光激发、显微技术和生物光子学等领域的应用受到日益关注.首先,介绍了SPPs的基本特性和表面等离子体亚波长光学研究热点,然后用微加工的手段制备了亚波长的环形和分形结构的样品,并用实验测量和传输矩阵的方法得出两级cross dipole分形结构在近红外和中红外的透过曲线,在1.72μm和5.2μm的波长处有两个强的透过峰,其透过率分别为36%和49%,理论和实验结果一致.     

多光楔板制作大面积光折变光子微结构

提出了一种制作大面积光子微结构的简便方法,利用多光楔板产生大面积的多光束干涉,在光折变晶体中制作出了大面积的周期性光子微结构和准周期性的光子准晶微结构。该方法简便易行,系统稳定性好,无须复杂的调节装置,制作效率高。使用导波强度图像、远场衍射图样、布里渊区光谱成像等方法对制作的大面积光子微结构进行了验证和分析。设计不同的多光楔板,可以制作出多种更复杂的大面积光子微结构。通过适当的处理,制作的大面积光子微结构可以长久地固定在光折变晶体中,也可以擦除后用于制作新的结构,这在集成光学和微纳光子器件领域具有良好的应用前景。