Inspired by the idea of combining conventional optical tweezers with plasmonic nanostructures, a technique named plasmonic optical tweezers (POT) has been widely explored from fundamental principles to applications. With the ability to break the diffraction barrier and enhance the localized electromagnetic field, POT techniques are especially effective for high spatial-resolution manipulation of nanoscale or even subnanoscale objects, from small bioparticles to atoms. In addition, POT can be easily integrated with other techniques such as lab-on-chip devices, which results in a very promising alternative technique for high-throughput single-bioparticle sensing or imaging. Despite its label-free, high-precision, and high-spatial-resolution nature, it also suffers from some limitations. One of the main obstacles is that the plasmonic nanostructures are located over the surfaces of a substrate, which makes the manipulation of bioparticles turn from a three-dimensional problem to a nearly two-dimensional problem. Meanwhile, the operation zone is limited to a predefined area. Therefore, the target objects must be delivered to the operation zone near the plasmonic structures. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art target delivery methods for the POT-based particle manipulating technique, along with its applications in single-bioparticle analysis/imaging, high-throughput bioparticle purifying, and single-atom manipulation. Future developmental perspectives of POT techniques are also discussed.

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Using a multiple layer optical waveguide system consisting of two vertically slab waveguides, classical Young's fringes may be obtained in the far-field diffraction plane. In agreement with the simple theory of diffraction interference the spacing of the far-field fringes is easily observed on mm to cm dimensions without further transformation of the output light. The simple methods of fabrication and means of optical coupling should provide a readily adaptable method for examining the principles of interferometry in an integrated optical format. The structure acts to transform polarized incident plane wave input light into separate slab modes of the device which emerge as two closely spaced and coherent sources at the output. The elements required for a classical Young's fringe demonstration are therefore all embodied in this approach. The basic concept can be applied to an optical method for sensing. In one example of this we demonstrate measurement of the phase difference induced between the upper and lower propagating modes in structures due to water vapor diffusion into the layers which are formed from hydrophilic polymers. The Young's fringe patterns exhibit a spatial intensity distribution which is sensitive to water vapor introduced over the surface of the structure. Differences in the effective index between the modes of the two waveguides during the diffusion of the vapor causes phase shifts which result in redistribution in the fringe pattern. The anticipated limit of detection of these devices is lower than 1 ppm for water vapor.

This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical study of the magnetic-tunable near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between two twisted graphene gratings. As a result of the quantum Hall regime of magneto-optical graphene and the grating effect, three types of graphene surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) modes are observed in the system: near-zero modes, high-frequency hyperbolic modes, and elliptic modes. The elliptic SPPs modes, which are caused by the combined effect of magnetic field and grating, are observed in the graphene grating system for the first time. In addition, the near-zero modes can be greatly enhanced by the combined effect grating and magnetic field, rendering graphene devices promising for thermal communication at ultra-low frequency. In particular, the near-zero modes result in a unique enhancement region of heat transfer, no matter for any twisted angle between gratings. The combined effect of grating and magnetic field is investigated simultaneously. By changing the strength of magnetic field, the positions and intensities of the modes can be modulated, and hence the NFRHT can be tuned accordingly, no matter for parallel or twisted graphene gratings.The magnetic field endows the grating action (graphene filling factors and twisted angles) with a higher modulation ability to modulate the NFRHT compared with zero-field. Moreover, the modulation ability of twist can be tuned by the magnetic field at different twisted angles. In sum, the combined effect of magnetic field and grating provides a tunable way to realize the energy modulation or multi-frequency thermal communications related to graphene devices.