2D materials are promising candidates as nonlinear optical components for on-chip devices due to their ultrathin structure. In general, their nonlinear optical responses are inherently weak due to the short interaction thickness with light. Recently, there has been great interest in using quasi-bound states in the continuum (q-BICs) of dielectric metasurfaces, which are able to achieve remarkable optical near-field enhancement for elevating the second harmonic generation (SHG) emission from 2D materials. However, most studies focus on the design of combining bulk dielectric metasurfaces with unpatterned 2D materials, which suffer considerable radiation loss and limit near-field enhancement by high-quality q-BIC resonances. Here, we investigate the dielectric metasurface evolution from bulk silicon to monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and discover the critical role of meta-atom thickness design on enhancing near-field effects of two q-BIC modes. We further introduce the strong-coupling of the two q-BIC modes by oblique incidence manipulation, and enhance the localized optical field on monolayer MoS2 dramatically. In the ultraviolet and visible regions, the MoS2 SHG enhancement factor of our design is 105 times higher than that of conventional bulk metasurfaces, leading to an extremely high nonlinear conversion efficiency of 5.8%. Our research will provide an important theoretical guide for the design of high-performance nonlinear devices based on 2D materials.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators based on lithium tantalate (LT, LiTaO3) wafers are crucial elements of mobile communication filters. The use of intrinsic LT wafers typically brings about low fabrication accuracy of SAW resonators due to strong UV reflection in the lithography process. This hinders their resonance frequency control seriously in industrial manufacture. LT doping and chemical reduction could be applied to decrease the UV reflection of LT wafers for high lithographic precision. However, conventional methods fail to provide a fast and nondestructive approach to identify the UV performance of standard single-side polished LT wafers for high-precision frequency control. Here, we propose a convenient on-line sensing scheme based on the colorimetry of reduced Fe-doped LT wafers and build up an automatic testing system for industrial applications. The levels of Fe doping and chemical reduction are evaluated by the lightness and color difference of LT-based wafers. The correlation between the wafer visible colorimetry and UV reflection is established to refine the lithography process and specifically manipulate the frequency performance of SAW resonators. Our study provides a powerful tool for the fabrication control of SAW resonators and will inspire more applications on sophisticated devices of mobile communication.

This publisher’s note corrects the funding order in Photon. Res.10, 2836 (2022)10.1364/PRJ.472114.

Terahertz (THz) molecular fingerprint sensing provides a powerful label-free tool for the detection of trace-amount samples. Due to the weak light–matter interaction, various metallic or dielectric metasurfaces have been adopted to enhance fingerprint absorbance signals. However, they suffer from strong background damping or complicated sample coating on patterned surfaces. Here, we propose an inverted dielectric metagrating and enhance the broadband THz fingerprint detection of trace analytes on a planar sensing surface. Enhancement of the broadband signal originates from the effects of evanescent waves at the planar interface, which are excited by multiplexed quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BICs). One can evenly boost the near-field intensities within the analytes by tuning the asymmetry parameter of quasi-BIC modes. The multiplexing mechanism of broadband detection is demonstrated by manipulating the incident angle of excitation waves and thickness of the waveguide layer. Compared to the conventional approach, the THz fingerprint peak value is dramatically elevated, and the largest peak enhancement time is 330. Our work gives a promising way to facilitate the metasensing of the THz fingerprint on a planar surface and will inspire universal THz spectral analysis for trace analytes with different physical states or morphologies.

Plasmonic high-quality factor resonators with narrow surface plasmon resonance (SPR) linewidths are extremely significant for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, optical sensors, imaging, and color filters. Unfortunately, extensive research on narrowing SPR linewidths is mainly based on noble metal nanostructures that are restricted by intrinsic loss. Here, heterostructures consisting of metal and dielectric metaphotonics are experimentally designed and fabricated for elaborating SPR linewidths. The results demonstrate that the SPR linewidths can be narrowed by 66.7% relative to that of aluminum nanostructures. The resonant linewidths are directly shrunk due to the interaction between low loss in the semiconductor nanostructures and electromagnetic confinement in the metal counterparts. Meanwhile, the resonant wavelength governed by heterostructure configurations shifts from 600 to 930 nm. This work will pave an avenue toward controlling resonant linewidths of metal-dielectric heterostructures for numerous applications.

Coupling effects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) induce changes in the wavelength, intensity, and linewidth of plasmonic modes. Here, inspired by coupling effects, we reveal an abrupt linewidth-shrinking effect in 2D gold nanohole arrays at the azimuthal angle of 45° arising from the interference of two degenerate SPR modes. We further demonstrate the biosensing capability under various excitation conditions for detecting the critical molecular biomarker of prostatic carcinoma, and achieve the maximum sensitivity at this angle. Our study not only enhances the understanding toward plasmonic resonance-linewidth shrinking, but also provides a promising strategy to greatly improve biosensing performance by light manipulation on plasmonic nanostructures.