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A superflexible hydrophobic silica-based aerogel (FHSA) was prepared via a facile sol−gel process and ambient pressure drying method. The FHSA was treated at different temperatures varying from −196 to 450 °C to evaluate its thermal and mechanical performances. The evolutions of the physical property, hydrophobicity, microstructure, pore structure, and chemical structure of the FHSA with the various treatment temperatures were investigated comprehensively. The structure of the FHSA did not show an obvious change after treatment in the liquid nitrogen. The bulk density of the FHSA increased from 0.047 to 0.077 g cm −3 when the thermal treatment temperature increased from 25 to 450 °C. The specific surface area and pore volume of the FHSA increased with the treatment temperature owing to the decomposition of the organic moieties. The Fourier transform infrared spectra showed that the methyl groups in the FHSA had excellent thermostability up to 400 °C. The water contact angles of the FHSA after treatment at

Due to the quantum analogy with optics, the resonant optical tunneling effect (ROTE) has been proposed to investigate both the fundamental physics and the practical applications of optical switches and liquid refractive index sensors. In this paper, the ROTE is used to enhance the spin Hall effect (SHE) of transmitted light. It is demonstrated that sandwiching a layer of a highrefractiveindex medium (boron nitride crystal) between two lowrefractiveindex layers (silica) can effectively enhance the photonic SHE due to the increased refractive index gradient and an enhanced evanescent field near the interface between silica and boron nitride. A maximum transverse shift of the horizontal polarization state in the ROTE structure of about 22.25 µm has been obtained, which is at least three orders of magnitude greater than the transverse shift in the frustrated total internal reflection structure. Moreover, the SHE can be manipulated by controlling the component materials and the thickness of the ROTE structure. These findings open the possibility for future applications of photonic SHE in precision metrology and spinbased photonics.

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