Based on the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), we analytically and numerically investigate the transmission response in metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguides with a side coupled nanocavity (SCNC). By filling the nanocavity with a Kerr nonlinear medium, the position of the resonant dip in the transmission spectrum can be tuned by the incident light intensity. The oscillation of a Fabry-Perot nanocavity formed by incorporating a finite length of the same Kerr nonlinear media into the MDM waveguide acts as a background for the transmission response of the system and induces a sharp and asymmetric response line shape. As a result, the wavelength shift required for the plasmonic device to be switched from the maximum to the minimum transmission can be reduced by half in a structure less than 400 nm long. Such an effect may be potentially applied to constructing SPP-based all-optical switching with low power threshold at nanoscale.

The development of affordable and compact noninvasive point-of-care (POC) dopamine biosensors for the next generation is currently a major and challenging problem. In this context, a highly sensitive, selective, and low-cost sensing probe is developed by a simple one-step laser-scribing process of plastic waste. A flexible POC device is developed as a prototype and shows a highly specific response to dopamine in the real sample (urine) as low as 100 pmol/L in a broad linear range of 10⁻¹⁰–10⁻⁴ mol/L. The 3D topological feature, carrier kinetics, and surface chemistry are found to improve with the formation of high-density metal-embedded graphene-foam composite driven by laser irradiation on the plastic-waste surface. The development of various kinds of flexible and tunable biosensors by plastic waste is now possible thanks to the success of this simple, but effective, laser-scribing technique, which is capable of modifying the matrix’s electronic and chemical composition.

A silver quadrumer consisting of four parallel aligned rectangular nanobars, with three at the bottom and one at the top, is proposed to provide two Fano resonances. These two resonances can be adjusted either simultaneously or independently simply by tuning the geometrical parameters. Due to the formation of the two resonances in a relatively short wavelength range, one of them can be spectrally squeezed to be very narrow, which induces a very high figure of merit ($\mathrm{FoM}=45$). By decomposing the scattering spectrum into bright modes and dark modes, the double Fano resonances are found to be originated from grouping the unit cells into two different groups. The evolution of the scattering spectrum with the central dimer position along the polarization direction suggests that the symmetry reducing induces the second Fano resonance and improves the FoM of the first one. By introducing one more nanobar into the quadrumer system, the FoM can approach the material’s limit, although the dip is relatively shallow. The ultrahigh FoM of the Fano resonance in the proposed quadrumer can provide ultra-sensitive refractive index sensing. Furthermore, the method for providing multiple independently tunable Fano resonances can offer new solutions to designing plasmonic-related nanolasers, photocatalysis, and biochemical sensors, etc.