The field of plasmonics has received extensive attention from researchers because of plasmon’s formidable ability to couple free-space electromagnetic excitation into a nanoscale volume and enhance near- field optical intensity. Such a unique advantage of metal optics paves the way for engineering light − matter interactions more feasibly, and with the recent advancement in nanotechnology, plasmonics has become the burgeoning research topic in energy harvesting, telecom, and sensing industries. However, the performance of conventional 2D plasmonic devices in sensing applications is still strongly limited by the rapid decay of the electric field as the distance from the metal surface increases. This bottleneck of distance-limited 2D devices can be addressed by extending the dimension of the field-interaction as that in three-dimensional (3D) or quasi-3D con figurations and therefore achieving volumetric field enhancement, providing a higher degree of access to the surrounding material and a larger surface area. Besides, temperature stability and CMOS compatibility are two important concerns for practical applications of plasmonic metamaterials. In our lab, we investigate into plasmonic metamaterials operating at mid-infrared spectrum particularly for non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensing and surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRA) of trace elements. We focus on developing novel optical solutions for on-chip monitoring of environmental pollution by leveraging the rich physics of plasmonics.

Selected Publications:

1. D. Hasan, et al., Novel CMOS-Compatible Mo-AlN-Mo Platform for Metamaterial Based Mid-IR Absorber, ACS Photonics., ., vol.4, no. 2, pp. 302-315, 2017.

2. Dihan Hasan, Prakash Pitchappa, Chong Pei Ho and Chengkuo lee, High Temperature Coupling of IR Inactive C=C Mode in CMOS Metamaterial Structure, Adv. Opt. Mater., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 1600778, 2017.

3. Dihan Hasan, Chong Pei Ho, Prakash Pitchappa,and Chengkuo Lee, Dipolar Resonance Enhancement and Magnetic Resonance in Cross-coupled Bow-tie Nanoantenna Array by Plasmonic Cavity ACS Photonics. ,vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 890-898, 2015.

Internet of things (IoT)” is a concept many developed countries are striving for where physical devices are equipped with tiny electronic devices to exchange information to realize a more integrated and efficient society. Sensing is a major aspect as it provides in-situ real time environment detection and monitoring. Mid-infrared photonics have emerged as a prominent solution for sensing and attracted abundant research interests in recent years because the fingerprints of many common chemical bonds, such as C-H,C=C,O-H, are in the mid-infrared region. With active research effort, environmental and bio-chemical sensing have already shown promising performance by utilizing mid-infrared photonics. Various materials, including silicon-on-insulator (SOI), silicon-on-sapphire (SOS), silicon nitride (Si3N4), aluminum nitride (AlN) and germanium Ge), have been demonstrated to achieve mid-infrared photonic devices with low loss and favorable performance. In out lab, we investigate into AlN and SOI technology for guided wave in-plane photonics at near IR and mid-infrared domain. Application wise, we actively consider novel modulation and sensing mechanism for bio and environment related study. We also investigate various physical effects such as Fano resonance and Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) on the developed waveguide based platforms.

Selected Publications:

1. Bowei Dong, Xin Guo, Chong Pei Ho, Bo Li, Hong Wang, and Chengkuo Lee, Xianshu Luo, and Patrick Lo, Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguide Devices for Broadband Mid-Infrared Photonics, , IEEE Photonics Journal., vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 4501410, 2017.

2. Bo Li, Chong Pei Ho and Chengkuo lee, Tunable Autler-Townes Splitting Observation in Coupled Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators, IEEE PHOTONICS J, vol. 8, no. 5, 4501910, 2016.

3. Chong Pei Ho, Prakash Pitchappa, Piotr Kropelnicki, Jian Wang, Hong Cai, Yuandong Gu and Chengkuo Lee, Two Dimensional Photonic Crystal Based Fabry-Perot Etalon Opt. Lett., vol. 40, no. 12, pp. 2743, 2015.

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