It is recognized that for a certain class of periodic photonic crystals, conical dispersion can be related to a zero-refractive index. It is not obvious whether such a notion can be extended to a noncrystalline system. We show that certain photonic quasicrystalline approximants have conical dispersions at the zone center with a triply degenerate state at the Dirac frequency, which is the necessary condition to qualify as a zerorefractive-index medium. The states in the conical dispersions are extended and have a nearly constant phase. Experimental characterizations of finite-sized samples show evidence that the photonic quasicrystals do behave as a near zero-refractive-index material around the Dirac frequency. [10]. However, the connection between conical dispersions at k ¼ 0 and zero-refractive index were built upon periodicity. The conical dispersion was obtained by tuning the system parameters of "one-atom-per-unit-cell" photonic crystals with a well-defined photonic band structure. Whether a conical dispersion can exist in a nonperiodic system is still an interesting and open question. Furthermore, the claim that a system behaves like a zero-index medium implicitly assumes that an effective medium description could be applied. While not explicitly stated, many coherent-potential-approximation-type effective medium theories, employed to map a Dirac cone to zero index [11], assume that each scatter resides in the same environment. Although this assumption of periodicity is not needed in the ω → 0, k → 0 limit, it is not immediately obvious that such effective medium description can be applied to nonperiodic systems if we consider effective parameters at k → 0 but at a finite frequency such as a Dirac point. Can a nonperiodic system behave operationally as if it has zero-refractive index?Photonic quasicrystal (PQC) is constructed by building blocks positioned on well-designed patterns but lacks translational symmetry [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Nonetheless, PQC can still have relatively sharp diffraction patterns due to longrange order. Such patterns confirm the existence of wave scattering and interference, providing similar functionalities as periodic counterparts, such as photonic band gaps [12][13][14][15], negative refraction [16], lasing [17][18][19], and nonlinear light propagations [20][21][22]. We will show theoretically and experimentally that some two-dimensional photonic quasicrystalline approximants can possess conical dispersion at k ¼ 0, and their finite-sized counterparts can behave like a zero-refractive-index medium as evidenced by different experimental measurements.In this Letter, we show the existence of conical dispersions and extended states with zero-refractive-index characteristics in some PQCs, and experimentally characterize these states. The extended states are close to the Dirac frequency, and form two cones intersecting at a "Dirac point." The eigenmodes have almost constant field intensity at each quasicrystalline site, regardless of the size and the bounda...
Manipulation of upconversion (UC) emission is of particular importance for multiplexed bioimaging. Here, we precisely manipulate the UC color output by utilizing the phonon-assisted energy back transfer (EBT) process in ultra-small (sub-10 nm) Gd2O3:Yb(3+)/Er(3+) UC nanoparticles (UCNPs). We synthesized the Gd2O3:Yb(3+)/Er(3+) UCNPs by adopting the laser ablation in liquid (LAL) technique. The synthesized Gd2O3:Yb(3+)/Er(3+) UCNPs are small spherical and monoclinic structures. Continuous color-tunable (from green to red) UC fluorescence emission is achieved by increasing the concentration of Yb(3+) ions from 0 to 15 mol%. A phonon-assisted energy back transfer (EBT) process from Er(3+) ((4)S3/2 → (4)I13/2) to nearby Yb(3+) ((2)F7/2 → (2)F5/2), which can significantly enhance red emission at 672 nm and decrease green emission, is responsible for the color-tunable UC emission by increasing the Yb(3+) concentration in Gd2O3:Yb(3+)/Er(3+) UC nanoparticles.
In this paper, the adsorption behavior of plasma proteins on the surface of ZnO thin films prepared by radio frequency (RF) sputtering under different sputtering powers was studied. The microstructures and surface properties of the ZnO thin films were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible optical absorption spectroscopy and contact angle techniques. The results show that the ZnO thin films have better orientation of the (0 0 2) peak with increasing RF power, especially at around 160 W, and the optical band gap of the ZnO films varies from 3.2 to 3.4 eV. The contact angle test carried out by the sessile drop technique denoted a hydrophobic surface of the ZnO films, and the surface energy and adhesive work of the ZnO thin films decreased with increasing sputtering power. The amounts of human fibrinogen (HFG) and human serum albumin (HSA) adsorbing on the ZnO films and reference samples were determined by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results show that fewer plasma proteins and a smaller HFG/HSA ratio adsorb on the ZnO thin films' surface.
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