We report the first experimental observation of an Excitonic Optical Tamm State supported at the interface between a periodic multilayer dielectric structure and an organic dye-doped polymer layer. The existence of such states is enabled by the metal-like optical properties of the excitonic layer based on aggregated dye molecules. Experimentally determined dispersion curves, together with simulated data, including field profiles, allow us to identify the nature of these new modes. Our results demonstrate the potential of organic excitonic materials as a powerful means to control light at the nanoscale, offering the prospect of a new alternative photonic building block for nanophotonics designs based on molecular materials.

This paper presents a novel cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) suitable for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) on-chip systems. The antenna was fabricated from a single high-resistivity silicon wafer via micromachining technology. The new antenna was characterized using HFSS and experimentally with good agreement been found between the simulations and experiment. The proposed DRA has good radiation characteristics, where its gain and radiation efficiency are 7 dBi and 79.35%, respectively. These properties are reasonably constant over the working frequency bandwidth of the antenna. The return loss bandwidth was 2.23 GHz, which corresponds to 3.78% around 60 GHz. The antenna was primarily a broadside radiator with -15dB cross-polarization level.

A novel technique for rapid and ultrahigh sensing of heavy metals in aqueous media based on microfluidic platform integrated with porous anodic alumina (PAA) membrane and functionalized with ultrathin porous layer of highly ordered hexagonal arrays of Au nanoparticles with 25 nm sub-gaps is proposed. The sensor function is based on both chemical and electromagnetic enhancement. Both were achieved by increasing the number of hot spots and by increasing the density of the Au-nanoparticles at the surface of the PAA membrane up to 7 × 10¹⁰ cm^-2. The sensor demonstrated high selectivity between three different heavy metal ions ( Hg²⁺, Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Co²⁺, and Ni²⁺) with concentrations varied from 1 to 20 ppb (1 × 10^-3 to 20 × 10^-3 μg/ml). The platform provides an instant and fully integrated detection method that is based on in-situ surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. The observed Raman enhancement is due to the excitation and interference of surface plasmon waves, which are highly dependent on the type and concentration of the heavy metal. Therefore, the proposed sensor is an unprecedented fully integrated platform that is easy to fabricate and seamlessly integrated with an in-situ signal detection device for added functionality.

We present evidence of optical Tamm states to surface plasmon polariton (SPP) coupling. We experimentally demonstrate that for a Bragg stack with a thin metal layer on the surface, hybrid Tamm-SPP modes may be excited when a grating on the air-metal interface is introduced. Out-coupling via the grating to free space propagation is shown to enhance the transmission as well as the directionality and polarization selection for the transmitted beam. We suggest that this system will be useful on those devices, where a metallic electrical contact as well as beaming and polarization control is needed.

Non-enzymatic glucose sensing is a crucial field of study because of the current market demand. This study proposes a novel design of glucose sensor with enhanced selectivity and sensitivity by using graphene Schottky diodes, which is composed of graphene (G)/platinum oxide (PtO)/n-silicon (Si) heterostructure. The sensor was tested with different glucose concentrations and interfering solutions to investigate its sensitivity and selectivity. Different structures of the device were studied by adjusting the platinum oxide film thickness to investigate its catalytic activity. It was found that the film thickness plays a significant role in the efficiency of glucose oxidation and hence in overall device sensitivity. 0.8–2 μA output current was obtained in the case of 4–10 mM with a sensitivity of 0.2 μA/mM.cm². Besides, results have shown that 0.8 μA and 15 μA were obtained by testing 4 mM glucose on two different PtO thicknesses, 30 nm and 50 nm, respectively. The sensitivity of the device was enhanced by 150% (i.e., up to 30 μA/mM.cm²) by increasing the PtO layer thickness. This was attributed to both the increase of the number of active sites for glucose oxidation as well as the increase in the graphene layer thickness, which leads to enhanced charge carriers concentration and mobility. Moreover, theoretical investigations were conducted using the density function theory (DFT) to understand the detection method and the origins of selectivity better. The working principle of the sensors puts it in a competitive position with other non-enzymatic glucose sensors. DFT calculations provided a qualitative explanation of the charge distribution across the graphene sheet within a system of a platinum substrate with D-glucose molecules above. The proposed G/PtO/n-Si heterostructure has proven to satisfy these factors, which opens the door for further developments of more reliable non-enzymatic glucometers for continuous glucose monitoring systems.