Periodic dielectric structures are typically integrated with a planar waveguide to create photonic band-edge modes for feedback in one-dimensional distributed feedback lasers and two-dimensional photonic-crystal lasers. Although photonic band-edge lasers are widely used in optics and biological applications, drawbacks include low modulation speeds and diffraction-limited mode confinement. In contrast, plasmonic nanolasers can support ultrafast dynamics and ultrasmall mode volumes. However, because of the large momentum mismatch between their nanolocalized lasing fields and free-space light, they suffer from large radiative losses and lack beam directionality. Here, we report lasing action from band-edge lattice plasmons in arrays of plasmonic nanocavities in a homogeneous dielectric environment. We find that optically pumped, two-dimensional arrays of plasmonic Au or Ag nanoparticles surrounded by an organic gain medium show directional beam emission (divergence angle <1.5° and linewidth <1.3 nm) characteristic of lasing action in the far-field, and behave as arrays of nanoscale light sources in the near-field. Using a semi-quantum electromagnetic approach to simulate the active optical responses, we show that lasing is achieved through stimulated energy transfer from the gain to the band-edge lattice plasmons in the deep subwavelength vicinity of the individual nanoparticles. Using femtosecond-transient absorption spectroscopy, we verified that lattice plasmons in plasmonic nanoparticle arrays could reach a 200-fold enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of the dye because of their large local density of optical states.

Abstract. Direct electrical recording and stimulation of neural activity using microfabricated silicon and metal micro-wire probes have contributed extensively to basic neuroscience and therapeutic applications; however, the dimensional and mechanical mismatch of these probes with the brain tissue limits their stability in chronic implants and decreases the neuron-device contact. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a 3D macroporous nanoelectronic brain probe that combines ultra-flexibility and subcellular feature sizes to overcome these limitations. Built-in strains controlling the local geometry of the macroporous devices are designed to optimize the neuron/probe interface and to promote integration with the brain tissue while introducing minimal mechanical perturbation. The ultra-flexible probes were implanted frozen into rodent brains and used to record multiplexed local field potentials (LFPs) and single-unit action potentials from the somatosensory cortex. Significantly, histology analysis revealed filling-in of neural tissue through the macroporous network and attractive neuron-probe interactions, consistent with long-term biocompatibility of the device.Currently, there is intense interest in the development of materials and electronic devices that can extend and/or provide new capabilities for probing neural circuitry and afford long-term minimally-invasive brain-electronics interfaces 1,2,3,4 . Conventional brain probes have contributed extensively to basic neuroscience 5,6 and therapeutic applications 7,8,9,10 , although they suffer from chronic stability and poor neuron-device contacts 4,11,12,13 . Recent studies of smaller 14,15 and more flexible 16,17 probes suggest that addressing size and mechanical factors could help overcome current limitations. 3The most common neural electrical probes are fabricated from metal 18 and silicon 19,20 , materials that have very different structural and mechanical properties compared to brain tissue 21 .Evidence suggests that mechanical mismatch is an important reason leading to abrupt and chronically unstable interfaces within the brain 4,22 . For example, motion of skull-affixed rigid probes in chronic experiments can induce shear stresses and lead to tissue scarring 13,23 , and thereby compromise the stability of recorded signals on the time scale of weeks to months 4,24, 25 .More recent work has shown that flexible probes fabricated on polymer substrates 12,17 and smaller-sized probes 11,14 can reduce deleterious tissue response. More generally, there has also been effort developing flexible bioelectronics 26, 27, 28 and nanoscale devices for single cell recording 29, 30 . We have also shown that 3D macroporous electronic device arrays can function as a scaffold for and allow for 3D interpenetration of cultured neuron cell networks without an adverse effect on cell viability 31 , and such networks can be injected by syringe through needles into materials, including brain tissue 32 . In the latter case, it remains challenging to make electrical in...

Plasmonic nanostructures concentrate optical fields into nanoscale volumes, which is useful for plasmonic nanolasers, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and white-light generation. However, the short lifetimes of the emissive plasmons correspond to a rapid depletion of the plasmon energy, preventing further enhancement of local optical fields. Dark (subradiant) plasmons have longer lifetimes, but their resonant wavelengths cannot be tuned over a broad wavelength range without changing the overall geometry of the nanostructures. Also, fabrication of the nanostructures cannot be readily scaled because their complex shapes have subwavelength dimensions. Here, we report a new type of subradiant plasmon with a narrow (∼5 nm) resonant linewidth that can be easily tuned by changing the height of large (>100 nm) gold nanoparticles arranged in a two-dimensional array. At resonance, strong coupling between out-of-plane nanoparticle dipolar moments suppresses radiative decay, trapping light in the plane of the array and strongly localizing optical fields on each nanoparticle. This new mechanism can open up applications for subradiant plasmons because height-controlled nanoparticle arrays can be manufactured over wafer-scale areas on a variety of substrates.

Plasmonic lasers exploit strong electromagnetic field confinement at dimensions well below the diffraction limit. However, lasing from an electromagnetic hot spot supported by discrete, coupled metal nanoparticles (NPs) has not been explicitly demonstrated to date. We present a new design for a room-temperature nanolaser based on three-dimensional (3D) Au bowtie NPs supported by an organic gain material. The extreme field compression, and thus ultrasmall mode volume, within the bowtie gaps produced laser oscillations at the localized plasmon resonance gap mode of the 3D bowties. Transient absorption measurements confirmed ultrafast resonant energy transfer between photoexcited dye molecules and gap plasmons on the picosecond time scale. These plasmonic nanolasers are anticipated to be readily integrated into Si-based photonic devices, all-optical circuits, and nanoscale biosensors.

Transistor-based nanoelectronic sensors are capable of label-free real-time chemical and biological detection with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, although the short Debye screening length in high ionic strength solutions has made difficult applications relevant to physiological conditions. Here, we describe a new and general strategy to overcome this challenge for field-effect transistor (FET) sensors that involves incorporating a porous and biomolecule permeable polymer layer on the FET sensor. This polymer layer increases the effective screening length in the region immediately adjacent to the device surface, and thereby enables detection of biomolecules in high ionic strength solutions in real-time. Studies of silicon nanowire (SiNW) field-effect transistors (FETs) with additional polyethylene glycol (PEG) modification show that prostate specific antigen (PSA) can be readily detected in solutions with phosphate buffer (PB) concentrations as high as 150 mM, while similar devices without PEG modification only exhibit detectable signals for concentrations ≤ 10 mM. Concentration-dependent measurements exhibited real-time detection of PSA with a sensitivity of at least 10 nM in ~130 mM ionic strength PB with linear response up to the highest (1000 nM) PSA concentrations tested. The current work represents an important step toward general application of nanoelectronic detectors for biochemical sensing in physiological environments, and is expected to open up exciting opportunities for in-vitro and in-vivo biological sensing relevant to basic biology research through medicine.

Nanomaterial-based field-effect transistor (FET) sensors are capable of label-free real-time chemical and biological detection with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, although direct measurements in high-ionic-strength physiological solutions remain challenging due to the Debye screening effect. Recently, we demonstrated a general strategy to overcome this challenge by incorporating a biomoleculepermeable polymer layer on the surface of silicon nanowire FET sensors. The permeable polymer layer can increase the effective screening length immediately adjacent to the device surface and thereby enable real-time detection of biomolecules in high-ionic-strength solutions. Here, we describe studies demonstrating both the generality of this concept and application to specific protein detection using graphene FET sensors. Concentration-dependent measurements made with polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified graphene devices exhibited real-time reversible detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) from 1 to 1,000 nM in 100 mM phosphate buffer. In addition, comodification of graphene devices with PEG and DNA aptamers yielded specific irreversible binding and detection of PSA in pH 7.4 1x PBS solutions, whereas control experiments with proteins that do not bind to the aptamer showed smaller reversible signals. In addition, the active aptamer receptor of the modified graphene devices could be regenerated to yield multiuse selective PSA sensing under physiological conditions. The current work presents an important concept toward the application of nanomaterial-based FET sensors for biochemical sensing in physiological environments and thus could lead to powerful tools for basic research and healthcare.field-effect transistor | Debye screening | surface modification | DNA aptamer receptor | polyethylene glycol N anoelectronic biosensors offer broad capabilities for label-free high-sensitivity real-time detection of biological species that are important to both fundamental research and biomedical applications (1-6). In particular, field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors configured from semiconducting nanowires (1, 2), single-walled carbon nanotubes (1, 3, 4), and graphene (1, 5, 6) have been extensively investigated since the first report of real-time protein detection using silicon nanowire devices (7). Subsequent studies have demonstrated highly sensitive and in some cases multiplexed detection of key analytes, including protein disease markers (8-10), nucleic acids (11-13), and viruses (14), as well as detection of protein-protein interactions (8,(15)(16)(17) and enzymatic activity (8).The success achieved with nanomaterial-based FET biosensors has been limited primarily to measurements in relatively low-ionicstrength nonphysiological solutions due to the Debye screening length (18,19). In short, the screening length in physiological solutions, <1 nm, reduces the field produced by charged macromolecules at the FET surface and thus makes real-time label-free detection difficult. The first method reported to overcome this ...

Real-time mapping and manipulation of electrophysiology in three-dimensional (3D) tissues could impact broadly fundamental scientific and clinical studies, yet realization lacks effective methods. Here we introduce tissue-scaffold-mimicking 3D nanoelectronic arrays consisting of 64 addressable devices with subcellular dimensions and sub-millisecond time-resolution. Real-time extracellular action potential (AP) recordings reveal quantitative maps of AP propagation in 3D cardiac tissues, enable in situ tracing of the evolving topology of 3D conducting pathways in developing cardiac tissues, and probe the dynamics of AP conduction characteristics in a transient arrhythmia disease model and subsequent tissue self-adaptation. We further demonstrate simultaneous multi-site stimulation and mapping to manipulate actively the frequency and direction of AP propagation. These results establish new methodologies for 3D spatiotemporal tissue recording and control, and demonstrate the potential to impact regenerative medicine, pharmacology and electronic therapeutics.

This article reports the study of infrared plasmonics with both random and periodic arrays of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) nanorods (NR). A description is given on the synthesis, patterning, and characterization of physical properties of the ITO NR arrays. A classical scattering model, along with a 3-D finite-element-method and a 3-D finite-difference-time-domain numerical simulation method has been used to interpret the unique light scattering phenomena. It is also shown that the intrinsic plasma frequency can be varied through careful postsynthesis processing of the ITO NRs. Examples are given on how coupled plasmon resonances can be tuned through patterning of the ITO NR arrays. In addition, environment dielectric sensing has been demonstrated through the shift of the resonances as a result of index change surrounding the NRs. These initial results suggest potential for further improvement and opportunities to develop a good understanding of infrared plasmonics using ITO and other transparent conducting oxide semiconducting materials.