Nanocrystalline diamond nanomembranes with thinning-reduced flexural rigidities can be shaped into various 3D mesostructures, such as tubes, jagged ribbons, nested tubes, helices, and nested rings. Microscale helical diamond architectures are formed by controlled debonding in agreement with finite-element simulation results. Rolled-up diamond tubular microcavities exhibit pronounced defect-related photoluminescence with whispering-gallery-mode resonance.

The synergy effect in nature could enable fantastic improvement of functional properties and associated effects. The detection performance of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) can be highly strengthened under the cooperation with other factors. Here, greatly-enhanced SERS detection is realized based on rolled-up tubular nano-resonators decorated with silver nanoparticles. The synergy effect between whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) and surface plasmon leads to an extra enhancement at the order of 105 compared to non-resonant flat SERS substrates, which can be well tuned by altering the diameter of micron- and nanotubes and the excitation laser wavelengths. Such synchronous and coherent coupling between plasmonics and photonics could lead to new principle and design for various sub-wavelength optical devices, e.g. plasmonic waveguides and hyperbolic metamaterials.

No abstract

Miniaturization of functional devices and systems demands new design and fabrication approaches for lab-on-a-chip application and optical integrative systems. By using a direct laser writing (DLW) technique based on two-photon polymerization (TPP), a highly integrative optofluidic refractometer is fabricated and demonstrated based on tubular optical microcavities coupled with waveguides. Such tubular devices can support high quality factor (Q-factor) up to 3600 via fiber taper coupling. Microtubes with various diameters and wall thicknesses are constructed with optimized writing direction and conditions. Under a liquid-in-tube sensing configuration, a maximal sensitivity of 390 nm per refractive index unit (RIU) is achieved with subwavelength wall thickness (0.5 μm), which offers a detection limit of the devices in the order of 10 RIU. Such tubular microcavities with coupled waveguides underneath present excellent optofluidic sensing performance, which proves that TPP technology can integrate more functions or devices on a chip in one-step formation.

A hybrid optical microcavity from rolled-up polymer/oxide/polymer nanomembranes presents its excellent capability for environmental relative humidity detection. When exposed to a moist surrounding, poly(acrylic acid)/poly(ethylenimine) polymers swell greatly due to the absorption of water molecules, which thus leads to an increased wall thickness of the tubular optical microcavity and therefore presents a profound wavelength redshift of its whispering-gallery mode resonance. These experiments fit well with the calculation based on the Mie-scattering theory. Theoretical calculation also demonstrates that the thin walls of our tubular microcavities contribute to a high detection sensitivity compared to other microcavities. Our work could lead to new designs and applications of optical microcavities.