The dielectric confinement effect plays an essential role in optoelectronic devices. Existing studies on the relationship between the dielectric confinement and the photoelectric properties are inadequate. Herein, three organic spacers with different dielectric constants are employed to tune the exciton dynamics of quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) Ruddlesden–Popper perovskite films. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy reveals that the small dielectric constant ligand enables a weak dynamic disorder and a large modulation depth of the coherent phonons, resulting in a more complete energy transfer and the inhibition of a trap-mediated nonradiative recombination. Additionally, the increase in the bulk-ligand dielectric constant reduces the corresponding exciton binding energy and then suppresses the Auger recombination, which is beneficial for high-luminance light-emitting diodes. This work emphasizes the importance of dielectric confinement for regulating the exciton dynamics of layered perovskites.

The modulation of thermal radiation in the infrared region is a highly anticipated method to achieve infrared sensing and camouflage. Here, a multiband metamaterial emitter based on the Al/SiO2/Al nanosandwich structure is proposed to provide new ideas for effective infrared and laser-compatible camouflage. By virtue of the intrinsic absorption and magnetic resonance property of lossy materials, the thermal radiation in the infrared region can be rationally modulated. The fabricated samples generally present low emissivity (ε3–5μm=0.21, ε8–14μm=0.19) in the atmospheric windows to evade infrared detection as well as high emissivity (ε5–8μm=0.43) in the undetected band for energy dissipation. Additionally, the laser camouflage is also realized by introducing a strong absorption at 10.6 μm through the nonlocalized plasmon resonance of the SiO2 layer. Moreover, the fabricated emitter shows promising prospects in thermal management due to the good radiative cooling property that is comparable to the metallic Al material. This work demonstrates a multiband emitter based on the metasurface structure with compatible infrared-laser camouflage as well as radiative cooling properties, which is expected to pave new routes for the design of thermal radiation devices.

Higher-order exceptional points (EPs), which appear as multifold degeneracies in the spectra of non-Hermitian systems, are garnering extensive attention in various multidisciplinary fields. However, constructing higher-order EPs still remains a challenge due to the strict requirement of the system symmetries. Here we demonstrate that higher-order EPs can be judiciously fabricated in parity–time (PT)-symmetric staggered rhombic lattices by introducing not only on-site gain/loss but also non-Hermitian couplings. Zero-energy flatbands persist and symmetry-protected third-order EPs (EP3s) arise in these systems owing to the non-Hermitian chiral/sublattice symmetry, but distinct phase transitions and propagation dynamics occur. Specifically, the EP3 arises at the Brillouin zone (BZ) boundary in the presence of on-site gain/loss. The single-site excitations display an exponential power increase in the PT-broken phase. Meanwhile, a nearly flatband sustains when a small lattice perturbation is applied. For the lattices with non-Hermitian couplings, however, the EP3 appears at the BZ center. Quite remarkably, our analysis unveils a dynamical delocalization-localization transition for the excitation of the dispersive bands and a quartic power increase beyond the EP3. Our scheme provides a new platform toward the investigation of the higher-order EPs and can be further extended to the study of topological phase transitions or nonlinear processes associated with higher-order EPs.

Magneto-plasmonic sensors based on surface plasmon resonance have been studied considerably in recent years, as they feature high sensitivity and ultrahigh resolution. However, the majority of such investigations focus on prism-based sandwich architectures that not only impede the miniaturization of devices but also have a weak transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) in magnitude. Herein, we theoretically demonstrate a magneto-plasmonic sensor composed of Au/Co bilayer nanodisk arrays on top of optically thick metallic films, which supports a narrow surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with a bandwidth of 7 nm and allows for refractive index sensitivities as high as 717 nm/RIU. Thanks to the high-quality SPR mode, a Fano-like TMOKE spectrum with a subnanometer bandwidth can be achieved in the proposed structure, thereby giving rise to ultrahigh sensing of merit values as large as 7000 in water. Moreover, we demonstrate a large TMOKE magnitude that exceeds 0.6. The value is 1 order of magnitude larger than that of magneto-plasmonic sensors reported. We also demonstrate that the behavior of TMOKE spectra can be controlled by tuning the geometrical parameters of the device including the diameter and thickness of nanodisk arrays. This work provides a promising route for designing magneto-plasmonic sensors based on metasurfaces or metamaterials.