In this report, we demonstrate electrocatalytic oxidation properties of ascorbic acid at poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) thin films in view of their potential application for bio-sensing devices. PEDOT thin films were deposited on gold thin films by electropolymerization of EDOT monomer in acetonitrile solvent. In-situ electrochemical-surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (EC-SPR) was used to detect both electrochemical and optical signals upon an injection of ascorbic acid.

Attenuated total reflection (ATR) property utilizing surface plasmon (SP) excitation was investigated for BK-7 prism/MgF2/Ag film/fluorescent organic dye film structure. In the structure, it is expected that SPs are excited at MgF2/Ag and Ag/dye film interfaces by Otto and Kretschmann configurations, respectively. In the experimental ATR curve, reflection dips for the SP excitations at the interfaces could be detected. Furthermore, SP emission lights were observed by irradiation of Ar ion laser beam from the dye film side. The SP emission light curve with two peaks was observed and it was also considered that the peaks corresponded to the SP excitation of Otto and Kretschmann configurations. The SP emission light spectra indicated the excited fluorescent dyes induced the SP emission lights. Intense emission light of Otto configuration was observed in this sample.

This article presents a new design concept of a glucose oxidase (GOD) electrode as an anode for a biofuel cell based on plasma-polymerized thin film (PPF) of dimethylaminomethylferrocene (DMAMF), which plays a role as an electron transfer mediator between the active site of the enzyme and anodic electrode. The configuration of the anode is a multilayer mixture of DMAMF-PPF and GOD, in which a nano-thin DMAMF-PPF containing a redox mediator was plasma-deposited directly onto a GOD-physisorbed electrode. The optimized biofuel cell with bioanode, in a 20 mM phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.4 containing 10 mM glucose, exhibited a maximum power density of 2.7 µW/cm2 at 20. The film deposition was performed using microfabrication-compatible organic plasma, which therefore suggests this fabrication process has significant potential for enabling high throughput production of micro biofuel cells.

Liquid medium was investigated for creation of real 3D dynamic color images on a basis of laser breakdown effect experimentally. It was shown, that breakdown plasma flash in liquid can be used as a shining voxel of white color. Plasma flashing voxels were produced by means of YAG laser with repetition rate up to 2000 Hz of nanosecond mJ pulses. Breakdown bubbles were found to be not hampering the displaying by flashes. Tens of liquids were tested concerning the lowest breakdown threshold. Up to now, tap water was found to be an optimal medium for displaying due to its low breakdown threshold, low attenuation of laser beam and safety. Seeing through electronic driven color filter made a burst of voxels to be perceived like colored one. TFT matrix from LCD was successfully used for the test coloring. A kind of hysteresis was also found out for dependence of laser breakdown probability on laser repetition rate for fixed laser beam in tap water.

Experimental and theoretical studies of light coupling to various magnetic nanostructured media and nanocomposites are briefly reported. Enhancement of the magneto-optical response is shown to occur when the constitutive materials of photonic crystals are magnetic. Transmission and reflection types of 1D magnetophotonic crystals (MPCs) have been studied. New possibility to enhance the magneto-optical response has been found when utilizing localized surface plasmon resonances in bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) films impregnated with Au nanoparticles. Examples of integrated optic devices are discussed in which functional elements are 1D and 2D magnetophotonic crystals.

In this study, attenuated total reflection (ATR) utilizing surface plasmon (SP) excitation and SP emission lights were observed for the adsorption of polystyrene (PS) spheres and a water-soluble polymer. The PS spheres contained fluorescent dyes and exhibited red fluorescence. The ATR properties indicated film deposition with increasing number of adsorption cycles. The SP emission light induced by the fluorescent dye in the spheres was also measured, and an increase in the peak intensity, as well as an angle shift, was observed. Furthermore, the SP emission light spectra were investigated at various emission angles. The dispersion relation obtained from the SP emission light almost corresponded to that obtained from the ATR curves.

This paper focuses on the numerical and experimental investigations of the influence of two polymers (PA6 and POM) on the arc behavior during arc motion process. The mathematical model of 3-dimentional air arc plasma considering the ablation of lateral walls is built based on magnetic hydro-dynamics (MHD). By adopting the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package based on control-volume method, the above MHD model is solved and the distribution of temperature field, concentration field, flow field and electrical potential field in the arc chamber are calculated. The simulation results indicate that the vapor concentration behind the arc column is higher than that in front of the arc column because of the existence of "double vortices" in the arc chamber. The use of polymers causes the maximal arc voltage increase 16.2% with POM and 18.9% with PA6 in this case and causes the average arc velocity increase 15.8% with POM and 21.1% with PA6 in this case. The experiments are also carried out to study the influence of polymers on arc voltage and arc root position in the arc chamber during arc motion. The experimental results prove the validity of the numerical investigation.

We formulated the excitation rate of VUV and emitted visible light from rare gas on PDP by using the Boltzmann equation with electron-atom collision integral term and obtained the excitation rate as the function of Temperature and Mass. This form of excitation rate was firstly derived in PDP area. In addition we showed the Pressure dependence of intensity ratio of Ne/VUV as the application of our excitation rate formulae.

Techniques for patterned modification of substrate surfaces are important for forming microarrays on protein chips. A hexamethyldisiloxane plasma-polymerized film (HMDS PPF) was deposited on a glass substrate and the resulting surface was partially modified by subsequent nitrogen plasma treatment with a patterned shadow mask. When surface adsorption of an antibody protein (F(ab')2 fragment of anti-human immunoglobulin G) was visualized by fluorescence microscopy, distinct 8080 µm2 square spots were observed, surrounded by a non-fluorescent 80 µm-wide grid. This pattern could be attributed to proteins selectively adsorbed onto the nitrogen plasma-treated regions but not onto the surface of pristine HMDS PPF. This provided a simple fabrication method of protein patterning.

The surface amino groups of plasma-polymerized films prepared from various nitrogen-containing monomers were quantitatively characterized for bioelectronic and biomedical applications. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were conducted on two kinds of surfaces: pristine surfaces of plasma-polymerized film prepared using various nitrogen-containing monomers, and theirs surfaces whose amino groups had been derivatized by a primary-amine-selective reagent carrying an XPS label. The XPS data showed that the maximum surface density of amino groups for this film was 8.41013 cm-2. Amino groups constituted 14-64% of all surface nitrogen atoms (NH/N), depending on the monomer used.

LSI on-chip optical interconnections are discussed from the viewpoint of a comparison between optical and electrical interconnections. Based on a practical prediction of our optical device development, optical interconnects will have an advantage over electrical interconnects within a chip that has an interconnect length less than about 10 mm at the hp32-22 nm technology node. Fundamental optical devices and components used in interconnections have also been introduced that are small enough to be placed on top of a Si LSI and that can be fabricated using methods compatible with CMOS processes. A SiON waveguide showed a low propagation loss around 0.3 dB/cm at a wavelength of 850 nm, and excellent branching characteristics were achieved for MMI (multimode interference) branch structures. A Si nano-photodiode showed highly enhanced speed and efficiency with a surface plasmon antenna. By combining our Si nano-photonic devices with the advanced TIA-less optical clock distribution circuits, clock distribution above 10 GHz can be achieved with a small footprint on an LSI chip.

In this review paper we showcase recent activities on silicon photonics science and technology research in Hong Kong regarding two important topical areas--microresonator devices and optical nonlinearities. Our work on silicon microresonator filters, switches and modulators have shown promise for the nascent development of on-chip optoelectronic signal processing systems, while our studies on optical nonlinearities have contributed to basic understanding of silicon-based optically-pumped light sources and helium-implanted detectors. Here, we review our various passive and electro-optic active microresonator devices including (i) cascaded microring resonator cross-connect filters, (ii) NRZ-to-PRZ data format converters using a microring resonator notch filter, (iii) GHz-speed carrier-injection-based microring resonator modulators and 0.5-GHz-speed carrier-injection-based microdisk resonator modulators, and (iv) electrically reconfigurable microring resonator add-drop filters and electro-optic logic switches using interferometric resonance control. On the nonlinear waveguide front, we review the main nonlinear optical effects in silicon, and show that even at fairly modest average powers two-photon absorption and the accompanied free-carrier linear absorption could lead to optical limiting and a dramatic reduction in the effective lengths of nonlinear devices.

In this letter, we propose a new approach to incremental coding of the subfield codes for plasma display panels (PDPs). The proposed approach suppresses the halftone noise of the PDPs, while completely eliminating false contour noise, as do existing incremental subfield codes, by selecting an optimal incremental subfield code adaptively for a given input image. The proposed method maps the problem of selecting the optimal incremental subfield code onto a special-case shortest path problem. Results of experiment using 109 sample images illustrated that the proposed method improved the average peak signal-to-noise ratio by 4.4-6.2 dB in halftone noise compared with existing incremental subfield coding methods.

Endothelial cell adhesion and growth were investigated on three types of surfaces with a plasma-polymerized coating (PPC): (1) the pristine surface of a hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDS) PPC (hydrophobic, electrically neutral surface); (2) an HMDS PPC surface with nitrogen-containing plasma treatment (hydrophilic, positively charged surface); and (3) an HMDS PPC surface treated with oxygen plasma (hydrophilic, negatively charged surface). Endothelial cells grew on surface (2) but not on surfaces (1) or (3). Next, endothelial cell adhesion and growth was investigated on a surface on which 80-µm squares were micro-patterned at 160-µm intervals in a mosaic composed of two different (cell-adhesive and non-cell-adhesive) regions. Cell growth on the patterned surfaces was different from that on non-patterned surfaces. PPC was shown to be a simple process for modulating cell adhesion to surfaces.

Excitation of plasmons on the surface of a metal grating placed in planar or conical mounting is investigated in detail. Most of the results of numerical computations are compared with experimental data. When a TM wave illuminates a metal grating, total or partial absorption of incident light occurs at angles of incidence at which the plasmon surface waves are excited. In planar mounting the absorption is generally strong and nearly total absorption is observed. While in conical mounting, it is not so strong as that in the planar mounting case and a considerable amount of incident power is reflected. This, however, is accompanied by enhanced TM-TE mode conversion and the greater part of the reflected wave is in the TE polarization. The reciprocal of the TM-wave efficiency, hence, is a practical measure in finding the angles of incidence at which the plasmons are excited. Because the angles are sensitive functions of the refractive index of a material over the grating surface, this phenomenon can be used as an index sensor.

We measured the complex permittivities of whole blood and blood plasma in quasi millimeter and millimeter wave bands using a coaxial probe method. The validity of these measurements was confirmed by comparing with those of a different measurement method, i.e., a dielectric tube method. It is shown that the complex permittivities of the blood samples are similar to those of water in quasi millimeter and millimeter wave bands. Furthermore, the temperature dependences of the complex permittivities of the samples were measured.

We experimentally investigated terahertz photomixing operation at room temperature in an InGaP/InGaAs/ GaAs two-dimensional plasmon-resonant photomixer incorporating grating-bicoupled dual-gate structure. Photoelectrons drifting into a high-density plasmon cavity grating from an adjacent low-density one extensively excite the plasmon resonance, resulting in emission of terahertz radiation. A vertical cavity formed between the two-dimensional plasmon grating plane and an indium-tin-oxide mirror at the back surface gains the radiation. Self-oscillation initially at around 4.5 THz excited by a dc-photo carrier component was reinforced by the photomixed differential-frequency excitation at 4.0 and 5.0 THz. This indicates a possibility of injection-locked oscillation of the photomixer in the terahertz frequency band.

Adsorption of antibody protein (anti-human IgG) onto plasma-polymerized thin films (PPF) with nanoscale thickness was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The PPF surface is very flat (less than 1 nm roughness) and its properties (charge and wettability) can be easily changed while retaining the backbone structure. We focus on two types of surfaces: one is the pristine surface of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDS) PPF (hydrophobic) and the other is an HMDS PPF surface with nitrogen-plasma treatment (hydrophilic and positive-charged surface). The AFM image showed that the antibody molecules were densely adsorbed onto both surfaces and individual antibody molecules could be observed. The QCM profiles show a corresponding tendency with the AFM images. These results indicate that the plasma polymerized film can be the suitable biointerface for the application of biosensor and bioassay.

Guiding and nanofocusing of a two-dimensional (2D) optical beam in a negative-dielectric-gap waveguide is studied theoretically. An index-guiding method along the dielectric core embedded in the negative-dielectric-gap is proposed and the confinement properties of the 2D optical beam are studied by the effective-refractive-index method and FDTD simulations. We have shown that the lateral beam width of the 2D optical beam can be shrunk to zero beyond the diffraction limit. A tapered negative-dielectric-gap waveguide using adiabatic propagation achieves nano-focusing and can be applied to nano-optical couplers. This is a gateway from conventional dielectric waveguides to nano-optical integrated circuits.

A waveguide-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with an adsorbed layer is analyzed using the beam-propagation method. For two-dimensional (2-D) models, numerical results show that the change in thickness of the adsorbed layer placed on the metal leads to a significant shift of the maximum absorption wavelength. Through eigenmode analysis, the maximum absorption wavelength is found to be consistent with the cutoff wavelength of the second-order surface plasmon mode. The designed 2-D sensor shows an absorption wavelength shift from 0.595 to 0.603 µm, when the analyte refractive index is increased from 1.330 to 1.334. After a basic investigation using the 2-D models, we next study 3-D models. When the metal with the absorbed layer is wide enough to cover the core region, the 3-D results are similar to the 2-D results. However, as the metal width is reduced, the absorption wavelength shifts toward a shorter wavelength and the sensitivity to the refractive index change degrades gradually. The degradation of the sensitivity is considerable when the metal width is narrower than the core width. As a result, the metal width of the practical SPR sensor should be slightly wider than the core width so as to maintain the sensitivity corresponding to that obtained for the 2-D model.