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The purpose of this paper is to simulate and analyze the excitation and propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on sinusoidal metallic gratings in conical mounting.

Chandezon's method has been implemented in MATLAB environment in order to compute the optical response of metallic gratings illuminated under azimuthal rotation. The code allows describing the full optical features both in far- and near-field terms, and the performed analyses highlight the fundamental role of incident polarization on SPP excitation in the conical configuration.

Results of far-field polarization conversion and plasmonic near-field computation clearly show that azimuthally rotated metallic gratings can support propagating surface plasmon with generic polarization.

The recent papers experimentally demonstrated the benefits in sensitivity and the polarization phenomenology that are originated by an azimuthal rotation of the grating. In this work, numerical simulations confirm these experimental results and complete the analysis with a study of the excited SPP near-field on the metal surface.

The purpose of this study is to design a plasmonic structure that can be used simultaneously as a heater and a refractive index sensor applicable for heating and sensing cycles of lab-on-chip (LOC).

The authors report on the full optical method applicable in the heating and sensing cycles of LOC based on the plasmonic nanostructure. The novelty of this proposed structure is due to the fact that a structure simultaneously acts as a heater and a sensor.

In terms of the performance of the proposed structure as an analyte detection sensor, in addition to the real-time measurement, there is no need to labeling the sample. In terms of the performance of the proposed structure as a plasmonic heater, the uniformity and speed of the heating and cooling cycles have been greatly improved. Also, there is no need for experts and laboratory conditions; therefore, our proposed method can meet the conditions of point of care testing.

The authors confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere nor it is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Details of Electrical and Electronic Apparatus and Applications in the Maintenance and Operation of Aircraft, Missiles and Space Vehicles. Over 140 electrical items manufactured by Associated Electrical Industries Ltd. will be installed in each TSR‐2 aircraft, including new scaled contactors and toggle switches made to stringent specifications. The items are being supplied by the AEI Aircraft Equipment Group at Coventry.

Aims to apply the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) algorithm combined with the fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique to solve dense matrix equations from the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) when the planar microstrip circuits are analyzed.

To enhance the computational efficiency of the GMRES‐FFT algorithm, the multifrontal method is first employed to precondition the matrix equations since their condition numbers can be improved.

The numerical calculations show that the proposed preconditioned GMRES‐FFT algorithm can converge nearly 30 times faster than the conventional one for the analysis of microstrip circuits. Some typical microstrip discontinuities are analyzed and the good results demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.

In the future, some more efficient preconditioning techniques will be found for the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) when the planar microstrip circuits are analyzed.

Polymer substrates with micron size roughness features have been found to play an important role in the mechanical performance of thin functional films which are used extensively in stretchable and flexible micro electromechanical systems. The purpose of this study is to report the stretchability and flexibility limits of micro size silver nano platelet films on a soft polymer substrate having two different orientations of micro grating with respect to the applied load.

Parallel and perpendicular micro gratings on the surface of a soft polymer substrate polydimethylsiloxane were patterned using a carefully machined master aluminum block and thin aluminum foils. Silver nano platelet-based films were rod coated on the substrate surface containing the micro gratings. These films were dried in ambient air and were tested for their stretchability and flexibility limits using homemade tools. Finite element modeling has also been performed and was found to support the experimental observations.

Experiments indicate that stretchability of silver nano platelet-based thin films tends to increase when the grating orientation remains parallel to the axis of the applied load, while its flexibility improves when the orientation becomes perpendicular to the loading axis.

The effect of grating orientation with respect to the applied load was investigated. The experiments show that micro grating roughness features are capable of enhancing the mechanical performance of nano platelet-based silver films on a soft polymer substrate and can be used in various stretchable and flexible micro electro mechanical device applications.

It is often important to acquire information such as temperature and strain values from metallic tools and structures in situ. With embedded sensors, structures are capable of monitoring parameters at critical locations not accessible to ordinary sensors. To embed sensors in the functional structures, especially metallic structures, layered manufacturing is a methodology capable of rapidly and economically integrating sensors during the production of tooling or structural components. Embedding techniques for both fiber‐optic sensors and thin‐film sensors have been developed.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a rigorous self-contained formulation for analyzing electromagnetic scattering by grating of plasmonic nanorods. The authors investigate this structure from the viewpoint of the practical application as a refractive index plasmonic sensor. The presented rigorous formulation is accompanied with a neat implementation providing a high computation efficiency and could be considered as an important tool for designing and optimizing compact sensors.

Scattering of an incident plane wave by grating made of a periodic arrangement of metal-coated dielectric nanocylinders on a dielectric slab is rigorously investigated using the recursive algorithm combined with the lattice sums technique. As a dielectric slab, the authors consider glass material, which is widely used in experiments, whereas silver (Ag) is used as a low loss metal suitable to excite plasmon resonances. The main advantage of the developed self-contained formulation is that first the authors extract the reflection and transmission matrices of a single planar array from a separate analysis of the grating and the slab and then obtain the scattering characteristics of the whole structure by using a recursive formula. The method is computationally fast.

Dependence of the surface plasmon resonance wavelength on the refractive index of the surrounding medium is carefully investigated. The resonance peaks are red-shifted with respect to an increasing refractive index of surrounding medium showing an almost linear behavior. Near field distributions are analyzed at the resonance wavelengths of the spectral responses. Special attention is paid to the formation of the dual-absorption bands because of the excitation of the localized surface plasmons. The authors give physical insight to the coupling between grating and the glass slab. The authors found that a strong enhancement of the field inside the slab occurs when the scattered wave of the grating is phase-matched to the guided modes supported by the slab.

In the authors’ formulation, they do not use any approximation and it is rigorous and accurate. The authors use their original method. The method is based on the lattice sums technique and uses the recursive algorithm to calculate the generalized reflection and transmission characteristics by grating. Such fast and accurate method is an effective tool apt for designing and optimizing tailored sensors, for e.g. advanced biomedical applications.

A major limitation to achieving significant speed increases in VLSI lies in the metallic interconnects. They are costly not only from the charge transport standpoint but also from capacitive loading effects. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in pursuit of fifth generation supercomputing, is investigating alternatives to the VLSI metallic interconnects, especially the use of optical techniques to transport the information between chips or between boards. As the on‐chip performance of VLSI continues to improve via the scale‐down of the logic elements, the problems associated with transferring data off and onto the chip become more severe. The use of optical carriers to transfer the information within the computer is very appealing from several viewpoints. Besides the potential for gigabit propagation rates, the conversion from electronics to optics conveniently provides a decoupling of the various circuits from one another. Significant gains will also be realised in reducing cross‐talk between the metallic routings, and the interconnects need no longer be constrained to the plane of the VLSI chip. In addition, optics can offer an increased programming flexibility for restructuring the interconnect network.

Polymeric coatings and packaging are often used to enhance the temperature sensitivity of fiber Bragg grating temperature sensors. The high thermal expansion coefficient of the polymer enhances the thermal sensitivity by improving the wavelength shift due to thermal expansion. The adhesion of the polymeric coatings to the silica based optical fiber plays an important role in the wavelength response characteristics of fiber Bragg gratings with respect to temperature. Experiments are done to qualitatively analyze the influence of adhesion. Three‐dimensional finite element simulations have been carried out. Spring elements are used to interconnect the nodes of the meshed models of optical fiber and coating. The effect of adhesion is studied as a function of spring stiffness.

This paper describes state‐of‐the‐art optical technology, employing Bragg gratings, which has been used to develop an Optical Fibre Strain Sensing System. This system is capable of providing actual strain and temperature information for new and existing structures. The sensors, written into the core of standard single mode optical fibre, are embedded into the composite material, or surface bonded on to the structure for load monitoring. The system can be used as a design tool for engineers, for composite cure‐monitoring, setting up of rigs etc., or can be used as a health monitoring tool to periodically monitor loading of bridges, buildings and pipelines.