Hyperbolic media have attracted much attention in the photonics community due to their ability to confine light to arbitrarily small volumes and their potential applications to super-resolution technologies. The two-dimensional counterparts of these media can be achieved with hyperbolic metasurfaces that support in-plane hyperbolic guided modes upon nanopatterning, which, however, poses notable fabrication challenges and limits the achievable confinement. We show that thin flakes of a van der Waals crystal, α-MoO3, can support naturally in-plane hyperbolic polariton guided modes at mid-infrared frequencies without the need for patterning. This is possible because α-MoO3 is a biaxial hyperbolic crystal with three different Reststrahlen bands, each corresponding to a different crystalline axis. These findings can pave the way toward a new paradigm to manipulate and confine light in planar photonic devices.

Controlling the twist angle between two stacked van der Waals (vdW) crystals is a powerful approach for tuning their electronic and photonic properties. Hyperbolic media have recently attracted much attention due to their ability to tailor electromagnetic waves at the subwavelength-scale which, however, usually requires complex patterning procedures. Here, we demonstrate a lithography-free approach for manipulating the hyperbolicity by harnessing the twist-dependent coupling of phonon polaritons in double-layers of vdW α-MoO3, a naturally biaxial hyperbolic crystal. The polariton isofrequency contours can be modified due to this interlayer coupling, allowing for controlling the polaritonic characteristics by adjusting the orientation angles between the two layers. Our findings provide opportunities for control of nanoscale light flow with twisted stacks of vdW crystals.

Steering incident light into specific directions at the nanoscale is very important for future nanophotonics applications of signal transmission and detection. A prerequisite for such a purpose is the development of nanostructures with high-efficiency unidirectional light scattering properties. Here, from both theoretical and experimental sides, we conceived and demonstrated the unidirectional visible light scattering behaviors of a heterostructure, Janus dimer composed of gold and silicon nanospheres. By carefully adjusting the sizes and spacings of the two nanospheres, the Janus dimer can support both electric and magnetic dipole modes with spectral overlaps and comparable strengths. The interference of these two modes gives rise to the narrow-band unidirectional scattering behaviors with enhanced forward scattering and suppressed backward scattering. The directionality can further be improved by arranging the dimers into one-dimensional chain structures. In addition, the dimers also show remarkable electromagnetic field enhancements. These results will be important not only for applications of light emitting devices, solar cells, optical filters, and various surface enhanced spectroscopies but also for furthering our understanding on the light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.

Due to their optical magnetic and electric resonances associated with the high refractive index, dielectric silicon nanoparticles have been explored as novel nanocavities that are excellent candidates for enhancing various light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Here, from both of theoretical and experimental aspects, we explored resonance coupling between excitons and magnetic/electric resonances in heterostructures composed of the silicon nanoparticle coated with a molecular J-aggregate shell. The resonance coupling was originated from coherent energy transfer between the exciton and magnetic/electric modes, which was manifested by quenching dips on the scattering spectrum due to formation of hybrid modes. The influences of various parameters, including the molecular oscillation strength, molecular absorption line width, molecular shell thickness, refractive index of the surrounding environment, and separation between the core and shell, on the resonance coupling behaviors were scrutinized. In particular, the resonance coupling can approach the strong coupling regime by choosing appropriate molecular parameters, where an anticrossing behavior with a mode splitting of 100 meV was observed on the energy diagram. Most interestingly, the hybrid modes in such dielectric heterostructure can exhibit unidirectional light scattering behaviors, which cannot be achieved by those in plexcitonic nanoparticle composed of a metal nanoparticle core and a molecular shell.

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Photografting polymerization of polyacrylamide (PAM) onto poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) films using benzophenone as photoinitiator was studied. The morphology and structure of the grafted PHBV film were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). The grafting percentage and grafting efficiency of the grafted PHBV film went up with the increase of acrylamide concentration and irradiation time. It was observed that photografting polymerization of PAM was not only limited to the film surface, but also in situ occurred inside the film to form the pore microstructure. Sheep bone marrow stromal cell studies showed that MSCs cells attachment efficiency on the grafted PHBV films increased and cells grew well. These results demonstrated the potentiality of PAM-photografting PHBV in medical applications.

Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) sustained in polar van der Waals (vdW) crystals exhibit extraordinary confinement of long‐wave electromagnetic fields to the deep subwavelength scale. In stark contrast to uniaxial vdW hyperbolic materials, recently emerged biaxial hyperbolic materials, such as α‐MoO3 and α‐V2O5, offer new degrees of freedom for controlling light in two‐dimensions due to their distinctive in‐plane hyperbolic dispersions. However, the control and focusing of these in‐plane HPhPs remain elusive. Here, a versatile technique is proposed for launching, controlling, and focusing in‐plane HPhPs in α‐MoO3 with geometrically designed curved gold plasmonic antennas. It is found that the subwavelength manipulation and focusing behaviors are strongly dependent on the curvature of the antenna extremity. This strategy operates effectively in a broadband spectral region. These findings not only provide fundamental insights into the manipulation of light by biaxial hyperbolic crystals at the nanoscale but also open up new opportunities for planar nanophotonic applications.

Covalent immobilization of collagen onto poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) film was achieved to improve its cell compatibility. Amide groups photografted on PHBV films were initially converted into amine groups through Hofmann degradation and collagen was then chemically bonded to amine groups, consequently forming the amide, amine, and collagen-modified PHBV. The structures of these modified PHBV films were confirmed by ATR-FTIR, XPS, and SEM analyses. Compared with that of PHBV film, surface wettability of the modified PHBV films enhanced remarkably. In particular, water contact angle of the collagen-modified PHBV film decreased from 65.0 degrees to 2.1 degrees within 130 s. Sheep chondrocytes cultured on PHBV and modified PHBV films were evaluated by cell adhesion test, MTT assay, and morphological observation under SEM. Results showed that the collagen-modified PHBV film had better cell adhesion and proliferation than other modified PHBV films and PHBV film. Chondrocytes on the collagen-modified PHBV film adhered through filopodia, spread by cytoplasmic webbing, and formed cells layer earlier than other modified ones, indicating that the collagen-modified PHBV is a promising biomaterial for cartilage tissue engineering.