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In recent years, directional scattering has been one of the most active research hotspots in the field of nanophotonics. Herein, we study the directional scattering properties of a silicon hollow nanodisk (SHND) illuminated by a tightly focused radially polarized beam. The induced strong longitudinal total electric dipole interferes with transverse magnetic dipole to achieve a highly-efficient transverse unidirectional scattering when the SHND is located at a specific position in the focal plane. Moreover, the manipulated unidirectional scattering in the transverse direction can be realized in the broad wavelength range from 581 nm to 656 nm. In addition, the unidirectional angular radiation towards all directions can be realized by adjusting the position of the SHND. Our research results are helpful for the design of nanophotonic devices that can manipulate the angular radiation direction, and have potential applications in sensing, optical communications, solar cells and other fields.

The toroidal dipole (TD) has attracted growing attention due to its unique properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate almost pure TD resonance in the visible region in a silicon hollow cylinder. The enhanced optical coupling to TD resonance is implemented using a focused radially polarized beam illumination matching, well-designed individual silicon nanostructure resonator. The polarization of the longitudinal electric field in the silicon hollow cylinder that breaks space-inversion symmetry is critical to the formation of enhanced TD resonance. Additionally, the pure TD resonance can be achieved in a wide spectral range by tuning the geometrical parameters of the structure. The proposed pure TD resonator may provide potential applications in the local enhancement of electromagnetic fields and the design of all-dielectric nanoantennas.

We investigate numerically and experimentally the modification of the spontaneous emission rate for micrometer-sized light sources embedded in a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF). The diameter of the light source is deliberately chosen such that they could be easily introduced into the central hole of the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber by capillary force. The photoluminescence from the microparticles is measured by using an inverted microscope in combination with a spectrometer. The modification of the spontaneous emission rate is observed in a wavelength region where there is no band gap. The experimental observations are consistent with the simulation results obtained by the plane wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain techniques.

Three-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) heterostructures with high quality are fabricated by using a pressure controlled isothermal heating vertical deposition technique. The formed heterostructures have higher quality, such as deeper band gaps and sharper band edges, than the heterostructures reported so far. Such a significant improvement in quality is due to the introduction of a thin TiO2 buffer layer between the two constitutional PCs. It is revealed that the disorder caused by lattice mismatch is successfully removed if the buffer layer is used once. As a result, the formed heterostructures possess the main features in the band gap of constitutional PCs. The crucial role of the thin buffer layer is also verified by numerical simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain technique.

Application of the pressure controlled isothermal heating vertical deposition method to the fabrication of colloidal photonic crystals is systematically investigated in this paper. The fabricated samples are characterized by scanning electron microscope and transmission spectrum. High-quality samples with large transmissions in the pass bands and the sharp band edges are obtained and the optimum growth condition is determined. For the best sample, the transmission in the pass bands approaches 0.9 while that in the band gap reaches 0.1. More importantly, the maximum differential transmission as high as 0.1/nm is achieved. In addition, it is found that the number of stacking layers does not increase linearly with concentration of PS spheres in a solution, and a gradual saturation occurs when the concentration of PS spheres exceeds 1.5 wt.%. The uniformity of the fabricated samples is examined by transmission measurements on areas with different sizes. Finally, the tolerance of the fabricated samples to baking was studied.

As a result of capillary forces, animal hairs, carbon nanotubes or nanowires of a periodically or randomly distributed array often assemble into hierarchical structures. In this paper, the energy method is adopted to analyse the capillary adhesion of microsized hairs, which are modelled as clamped microcantilevers wetted by liquids. The critical conditions for capillary adhesion of two hairs, three hairs or two bundles of hairs are derived in terms of Young's contact angle, elastic modulus and geometric sizes of the beams. Then, the hierarchical capillary adhesion of hairs is addressed. It is found that for multiple hairs or microcantilevers, the system tends to take a hierarchical structure as a result of the minimization of the total potential energy of the system. The level number of structural hierarchy increases with the increase in the number of hairs if they are sufficiently long. Additionally, we performed experiments to verify our theoretical solutions for the adhesion of microbeams.

Two dimensional (2D) materials often exhibit novel properties due to various coupling effects with their supporting substrates. Here, using friction force microscopy (FFM), we report an unusual moire superlattice-level stick-slip instability on monolayer graphene epitaxially grown on Ru(0 0 0 1) substrate. Instead of smooth friction modulation, a significant long-range stick-slip sawtooth modulation emerges with a period coinciding with the moire superlattice structure, which is robust against high external loads and leads to an additional channel of energy dissipation. In contrast, the long-range stick-slip instability reduces to smooth friction modulation on graphene/Ir(1 1 1) substrate. The moire superlattice-level slip instability could be attributed to the large sliding energy barrier, which arises from the morphological corrugation of graphene on Ru(0 0 0 1) surface as indicated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The locally steep humps acting as obstacles opposing the tip sliding, originates from the strong interfacial electronic interaction between graphene and Ru(0 0 0 1). This study opens an avenue for modulating friction by tuning the interfacial atomic interaction between 2D materials and their substrates.

For soft materials like biological tissues and gels, surface energy and hyperelasticity have significant influences on their mechanical response to external load. In this paper, we investigate the effects of surface energy on nanoindentation of hyperelastic solids by using conical, flat and spherical indenters. The hyperelastic behavior of soft solids is characterized by the neo-Hookean model, and the influence of surface energy is analyzed through finite element simulations. For the three typical indenters, the explicit relations between compressive load and indent depth are obtained considering both finite deformation and surface energy. When the contact radius is comparable with the ratio of surface energy density to elastic modulus, surface energy will evidently alter the contact pressure, surface profile, and overall response. Compared to the linear elastic predictions, the neo-Hookean hyperelasticity tends to increase the indent depth, while surface energy has a reverse effect. The obtained results are helpful to accurately characterize the mechanical response of soft solids via nanoindentation tests.

Atomic-scale surface steps play an important role in the mechanical behaviors of nanoparticles. Both molecular dynamics and finite element simulations are performed to investigate the elastic compression of copper nanoparticles. When surface steps are taken into account, the finite element calculation predicts the same compressive load-depth relation as the atomistic simulation. It is revealed that the compression of crystalline nanoparticles on facets should be characterized by a flat punch indenting an elastic half space, instead of the widely adopted Hertzian model with smooth spherical surface. As the particle size increases from nanometers to microns, the influence of atomic-scale surface steps becomes insignificant and the compressive load-depth relation transmits from the flat punch model to the Hertzian model. This study bridges the contact of an individual particle from nanoscale to microscale, and is helpful for using the indentation technique to measure the mechanical properties of particles.

Elastocapillarity plays a significant role in the buoyancy and water repellency of soft objects floating on water. In this paper, we analyze the wetting behavior of an elastic and circular plate pressing a liquid surface. The geometry and stability of axisymmetric infinite liquid menisci are investigated, and their qualitative difference from two-dimensional planar menisci is revealed. By comparing the wetting processes of rigid and elastic circular plates under pressing, we show that flexibility benefits both the maximal depth and buoyancy a plate can reach. The results are helpful not only for understanding the living behavior of some aquatic creatures but also for the design of biomimetic soft microrobotics.

The theoretical and experimental results of tightly focused radially polarized vortex beams are demonstrated. An auto-focus technology is introduced into the measurement system in order to enhance the measurement precision, and the radially polarized vortex beams are generated by a liquid-crystal polarization converter and a vortex phase plate. The focused fields of radially polarized vortex beams with different topological charges at numerical apertures (NAs) of 0.65 and 0.85 are measured respectively, and the results indicate that the total intensity distribution at focus is dependent not only on the NA of the focusing objective lens and polarization pattern of the beam but also on the topological charge l of the beam. Some unique focusing properties of radially polarized vortex beams with fractional topological charges are presented based on numerical calculations. The experimental verification paves the way for some practical applications of radially polarized vortex beams, such as in optical trapping, near-field microscopy, and material processing.

The autonomy and property of atoms/molecules adsorbed on the surface of a microcantilever can be probed by measuring its resonance frequency shift due to adsorption. The resonance frequency change of a cantilever induced by chemisorption is theoretically studied. Oxygen chemisorbed on the Si(100) surface is taken as a representative example. We demonstrate that the resonant response of the cantilever is mainly determined by the chemisorption-induced bending stiffness variation, which depends on the bond configurations formed by the adsorbed atoms and substrate atoms. This study is helpful for optimal design of microcantilever-based sensors for various applications.

This paper demonstrates the realization of an optical switch by optically manipulating a large number of polystyrene spheres contained in a capillary. The strong scattering force exerted on polystyrene spheres with a large diameter of 4.3 „m is employed to realize the switching operation. A transparent window is opened for the signal light when the polystyrene spheres originally located at the beam centre are driven out of the beam region by the strong scattering force induced by the control light. The switching dynamics under difierent incident powers is investigated and compared with that observed in the optical switch based on the formation of optical matter. It is found that a large extinction ratio of » 30 dB and fast switching-on and switching-ofi times can be achieved in this type of switch.

This paper demonstrates experimentally and numerically that a significant modification of spontaneous emission rate can be achieved near the surface of a three-dimensional photonic crystal. In experiments, semiconductor core-shell quantum dots are intentionally confined in a thin polymer film on which a three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystal is fabricated. The spontaneous emission rate of quantum dots is characterised by conventional and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The modification of the spontaneous emission rate, which is reflected in the change of spectral shape and PL lifetime, is clearly observed. While an obvious increase in the PL lifetime is found at most wavelengths in the band gap, a significant reduction in the PL lifetime by one order of magnitude is observed at the short-wavelength band edge. Numerical simulation reveals a periodic modulation of spontaneous emission rate with decreasing modulation strength when an emitter is moved away from the surface of the photonic crystal. It is supported by the fact that the modification of spontaneous emission rate is not pronounced for quantum dots distributed in a thick polymer film where both enhancement and suppression are present simultaneously. This finding provides a simple and effective way for improving the performance of light emitting devices.

This paper systematically investigates the response of colloidal liquids containing magnetic holes of different volume densities to magnetic field by conventional transmission measurements. It finds that the enhancement in the transmission of such a colloidal liquid under a magnetic field exhibits a strong dependence on the volume density of magnetic holes. A linear increase in the maximum enhancement factor is observed when the volume density of magnetic holes is below a critical level at which a maximum enhancement factor of ~150 is achieved in the near infrared region. Once the volume density of magnetic holes exceeds the critical level, a sharp drop of the maximum enhancement factor to ~2 is observed. After that, the maximum enhancement factor increases gradually till a large volume density of ~9%. By monitoring the arrangement of magnetic holes under a magnetic field, it reveals that the colloidal liquids can be classified into three different phases, i.e., the gas-like, liquid-like and solid-like phases, depending on the volume density of magnetic holes. The response behaviour of colloidal liquids to magnetic field is determined by the interaction between magnetic holes which is governed mainly by their volume density. A phase transition, which is manifested in the dramatic reduction in the maximum enhancement factor, is clearly observed between the liquid-like and solid-like phases. The optical switching operations for colloidal liquids in different phases are compared and the underlying physical mechanisms are discussed.

Nanosprings made of metallic or semiconducting materials hold promise for a wide range of important applications. In this letter, we extend the classical Kirchhoff rod model by incorporating surface effects on the mechanical response of quasi–one-dimensional nanomaterials. The refined model is then employed to derive the elastic constants of a nanospring by accounting for the effect of surface elasticity and residual surface stresses. The results demonstrate that the stiffness of nanosprings may exhibit remarkable dependence on their cross-sections sizes. This study is helpful not only for understanding the size-dependent behavior of nanosprings but also for their applications in micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems.

In this letter, we analyze the influence of surface stresses on the vibration and buckling behavior of piezoelectric nanowires by using the Euler-Bernoulli beam model. The effect of surface stresses is considered by applying a curvature-dependent distributed transverse loading along the beam. It is found that the resonant frequency of piezoelectric nanowires can be tuned by adjusting the applied electric potential, and its elastic constant and residual surface stress could be determined experimentally by measuring the critical electric potential at the occurrence of axial buckling. This study is helpful for design of nanowire-based devices and for characterization of the mechanical properties of nanowires.

The size-dependent elastic property of nanowires induced by the surface effect is investigated by using the core-shell model. The overall effective elastic moduli of nanowires with regular polygonal cross-sections are unified into a simple and explicit relation. It is found that the effect of surface elasticity on the elastic moduli can be well characterized by two dimensionless material and geometric parameters with clear physical meaning. Finite element simulations demonstrate that the derived theoretical relation is applicable for all the vibration, bending, and buckling test methods for measuring the mechanical properties of nanowires. The analytical result is also validated by comparing it with relevant experimental measurements. This study is helpful not only for interpreting various phenomena associated with size-dependent mechanical properties of nanowires but also for developing and evaluating test techniques for material characterization at the nanoscale.

We investigate the stiffening effect of graphene sheets dispersed in polymer nanocomposites using the Mori–Tanaka micromechanics method. The effective elastic moduli of graphene sheet-reinforced composites are first predicted by assuming that all the graphene sheets are either aligned or randomly oriented in the polymer matrix while maintaining their platelet-like shape. It is shown that a very low content of graphene sheets can considerably enhance the effective stiffness of the composite. The superiority of graphene sheets as a kind of reinforcement is further verified by a comparison with carbon nanotubes, another promising nanofiller in polymer composites. In addition, we analyze several critical physical mechanisms that may affect the reinforcing effects, including the agglomeration, stacking-up and rolling-up of graphene sheets. The results reveal the extent to which these factors will negatively influence the elastic moduli of graphene sheet-reinforced nanocomposites. This theoretical study may help to understand the relevant experimental results and facilitate the mechanical characterization and optimal synthesis of these kinds of novel and highly promising nanocomposites.

We measured the thermal and electrical conductivities of nanoporous Au thin foils in the temperature range 93-300 K. Resulting from the nanoscale microstructure, the two types of conductivities are both temperature dependent and significantly lower than those of bulk Au. However, the corresponding Lorenz number is strikingly similar to that of bulk Au, indicating that the Wiedemann-Franz law holds perfectly well for nanoporous metals in this temperature range. Compared to the bulk value, the Debye temperature of nanoporous Au is decreased. We predict the theoretical Debye temperature of nanoporous Au by its relation to the elastic constants. The present results indicate that the nanoporous Au foils should be comprised of macroscopic, single-crystalline porous grains rather than nanocrystals.

The buckling mode of a thin film lying on a soft substrate has been used to determine the elastic modulus of thin films and one-dimensional objects (e.g. nanowires and nanotubes). In this paper, dimensional analysis and three-dimensional nonlinear finite element computations have been made to investigate the buckling of a film with finite width bonded to a compliant substrate. Our study demonstrates that the effect of Poisson's ratio of the film can be neglected when its width–thickness ratio is smaller than 20. For wider films, omitting the influence of Poisson's ratio may lead to a significant systematic error in the measurement of the Young's modulus and, therefore, the film should be treated as a plate. It is also found that the assumption of the uniform interfacial normal stress along the width of the film made in the theoretical analysis does not cause an evident error, even when its width is comparable to its thickness. Based on the computational results, we further present a simple expression to correlate the buckling wavelength with the width and thickness of the film and the material properties (Young's moduli and Poisson's ratios) of the film and substrate, which has a similar form to that in the classical plane-strain problem. The fundamental solutions reported here are not only very accurate in a broad range of geometric and material parameters but also convenient for practical use since they do not involve any complex calculation.

In this paper, surface effects on the axial buckling and the transverse vibration of nanowires are examined by using the refined Timoshenko beam theory. The critical compression force of axial buckling and the natural frequency of nanowires are obtained analytically, in which the impacts of surface elasticity, residual surface stress, transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia have been included. The buckling and vibration behaviour of a nanowire is demonstrated to be size dependent, especially when its cross-sectional dimension reduces to nanometres. The surface effects with positive elastic constants tend to increase the critical compression force and the natural frequency, especially for slender nanowires, while the shear deformation lowers these values for stubby nanowires. This study may be helpful to accurately measure the mechanical properties of nanowires and to design nanowire-based devices and systems.

Three-dimensional optical matters are created by combining the single beam optical trapping with the conventional Z-scan technique. Dynamic light diffraction is employed to evaluate the structure and quality of the optical matter formed at the optimum trapping power. The lattice constant of the optical matter is extracted based on the Bragg and Snell laws, showing that polystyrene spheres are nearly close-packed in the optical matter, confirmed by comparing the diffraction pattern of the optical matter with that of a colloidal photonic crystal fabricated by the self-assembled technique. The relatively broad diffraction peaks observed in the optical matter indicate that the density of disorders in it is higher than that in the photonic crystal. It is suggested that the optical matter possesses a random close-packed structure rather than a face centered cubic one.

Dielectric gratings with period in the range from λ/10 to λ/4 with λ being the illumination wavelength not only exclude higher order diffractions but also exhibit strong dispersion of effective indices which are proportional to the wavelength. Moreover, they are insensitive to the incident angle of the illumination wave. With these features, we can design a true zero-order achromatic and angle-insensitive phase retarder which can be used as the polarization state analyzer in middle wave infrared (MWIR) imaging polarimetry. A design method using effective medium theory is described, and the performance of the designed phase retarder is evaluated by rigorous coupled wave analysis theory. The calculation results demonstrate that the retardance deviates from 45° by < ±1.6° within a field of view ±10° over the MWIR bandwidth (3–5 μm).

This paper studies the surface instability of an elastic thin solid film lying on a rigid substrate and subjected to van der Waals-like surface interactions. The effect of film?substrate interfacial slippage is accounted for by using a simplified linear cohesive interface model. It is found that the interfacial slippage generally plays a destabilizing role in the surface instability of the thin film. For highly compressible films with Poisson's ratio smaller than 0.25, the surface wrinkling behaviour previously inconceivable in the case of a perfectly bonded interface is now feasible if film?substrate interface slipping is permitted. In addition, our linear perturbation analysis shows that the critical conditions for the onset of surface instability can be modulated by adjusting the slippery stiffness of the interface. The result might be helpful for developing novel techniques to create micro-/nanosized surface patterns.

Ordered structures formed in Z-scan-based optical trapping of colloidal liquids are evaluated by examining both the Z-scan trace and the diffraction pattern of the trapping region. It is found that there exits an optimum trapping power at which a highly ordered structure is achieved. This optimum trapping power exhibits a dependence on the scanning speed. In addition, a rapid deterioration in the quality of the ordered structures occurs with increasing scanning speed and it can be compensated by an increase of the trapping power. The two mechanisms that govern the annihilation dynamics of the ordered structures are clearly resolved at high scanning speeds due to their different response times to the change of the trapping light.

The stress and electric fields in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) under an applied electric bias were investigated by using a three-dimensional finite element model of ferroelectric ceramics. A coupled thermal–mechanical analysis was first made to calculate the residual thermal stress induced by the sintering process, and then a coupled electrical–mechanical analysis was performed to predict the total stress distribution in the MLCCs under a representative applied electric bias. The effects of the number of dielectric layers, the single layer thickness as well as the residual thermal stresses on the total stresses were all examined. The numerical results show that the residual thermal stress induced by the sintering process has a significant influence on the contribution of the total stresses and, therefore, should be taken into account in the design and evaluation of MLCC devices.

Microcantilever-based techniques can be used to explore the autonomy and property of molecules (e.g. DNA and single actin filaments) adsorbed on a surface. A theoretical model is presented here to predict the resonance frequency of a cantilever induced by physically adsorbed atoms/molecules. The cantilever is modelled as a sandwich beam containing two surface layers of a finite thickness and a bulk layer between them. It is found that the resonance frequency shift depends sensitively on both the mass and bending stiffness variations of the cantilever induced by the adsorbed atoms/molecules. The adsorptions of O atoms on Si(1 0 0), of O atoms on Au(1 0 0) and of H atoms on Au(1 0 0) are taken as three representative examples. We demonstrate that physisorption can induce distinctly different resonant responses of cantilevers, depending not only on the adatoms but also on the substrate material. This study is helpful for the optimal design of microcantilever-based measurement techniques.