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The purpose of this paper is to present a novel and effective fabricating method of 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure.

The reverse diamond‐structure resin molds are fabricated by stereolithography (SL), then ceramic slurry is prepared and injected into the molds under vacuum condition. Subsequently, ceramic photonic crystals are obtained after vacuum freeze‐drying and sintering.

The combination of SL, gel‐casting and freeze‐drying could be used to fabricate the 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure which have intact structure and minimal shrinkage. The samples have been tested and the experimental results indicate that their band gap is in the range of 10.14‐12.20 GHz, consistent with the simulation results.

The influence of fabrication process on the photonic band gap needs further study.

This paper presents a novel fabricating method of 3D diamond‐structure ceramic photonic crystals based on SL, gel‐casting and freeze‐drying. The method fabricates complex ceramic photonic crystals with high accuracy and helps further research in this field.

Three‐dimensional photonic bandgap (PBG) structures using alumina (Al₂O₃) as the high permittivity material were modeled and then the structures were fabricated by Fused Deposition of Multi‐materials (FDMM) technology. A finite element method and a real‐time electromagnetic wave propagation software were used to simulate and design the layered PBG structures for applications in the microwave frequency range. The modeling predicted a 3‐D photonic bandgap in the 16.5–23.5 GHz range. FDMM provides a computer‐controlled process to generate 3‐D structures, allowing high fabrication flexibility and efficiency. Electromagnetic measurements displayed the presence of a bandgap between 17.1–23.3 GHz, showing a good agreement with the predicted values. These PBG structures are potential candidates for applications in advanced communication systems.

In this paper, the authors aim to examine and comparatively evaluate a recently-developed metaheuristic called crystal structure algorithm (CryStAl) – which is inspired by the symmetries in the internal structure of crystalline solids – in solving engineering mechanics and design problems.

A total number of 20 benchmark mathematical functions are employed as test functions to evaluate the overall performance of the proposed method in handling various functions. Moreover, different classical and modern metaheuristic algorithms are selected from the optimization literature for a comparative evaluation of the performance of the proposed approach. Furthermore, five well-known mechanical design examples are utilized to examine the capability of the proposed method in dealing with challenging optimization problems.

The results of this study indicated that, in most cases, CryStAl produced more accurate outputs when compared to the other metaheuristics examined as competitors.

This paper can provide motivation and justification for the application of CryStAl to solve more complex problems in engineering design and mechanics, as well as in other branches of engineering.

CryStAl is one of the newest metaheuristic algorithms, the mathematical details of which were recently introduced and published. This is the first time that this algorithm is applied to solving engineering mechanics and design problems.

This study aims to address the issue of high-precision measurement of AC electric field. An electro-optical sensor with high sensitivity is proposed for this purpose.

The proposed sensor combines electromagnetic induction and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing techniques. It is composed of a sensing probe, a piece or stack of piezoelectric ceramics (PZT) and an FBG. A signal processing circuit is designed to rectify and amplify the induced voltage. The processed signal is applied to the PZT and the deformation of PZT is detected by FBG. Theoretical calculation and simulation are conducted to verify the working principle of the probe. The sensor prototype is fabricated and its performance is tested.

The results of this study show that the sensor has good linearity and repeatability. The sensor sensitivity is 0.061 pm/Vm⁻¹ in the range from 250 to 17,500 V/m, enabling a measurement resolution of electric field strength of 16.3 V/m. The PZT stack is used to enhance the sensor sensitivity and the resolution can be improved up to 3.15 V/m.

A flexure hinge lever mechanism is used to amplify the deformation of PZT for further enhancement of sensitivity. The results show that the proposed sensor has high sensitivity and can be used for the accurate measurement of an electric field. The proposed sensor could have potential use for electric field measurement in the power industry.

The paper presents the band gap computation in one‐ and two‐dimensional photonic crystals built up from porous silicon. The frequency dispersion of the dielectric materials is taken into account.

The behavior of the light in a photonic crystal can be well described by the Maxwell equations. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is applied to determine the band structure. The frequency dependence of the dielectric constant is taken into account by a sum of second‐order Lorenz poles. The material parameters are determined applying a conjugate gradient‐based minimization procedure. Passing a light pulse of Gaussian distribution through the photonic crystal and analyzing the transmitted wave can explore the photonic bands.

The realized simulations and visualizations can lead to a much better understanding of the behavior of electromagnetic waves in dispersive photonic crystals, and can make possible to set up experimental conditions properly. The obtained results show again that silicon and porous silicon can be used for the fabrication of photonic crystals.

Due to the high computational requirements of the three‐dimensional case we plan to work out a parallel version of the presented FDTD algorithm.

This paper presents a simple way to take into account the frequency dispersion in the simulation of photonic crystals with the FDTD method.

After reviewing a previous work on the disappearance of a stacking fault in the hard-sphere (HS) system confined between the top and bottom flat walls under gravity, we present results of a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of HSs confined between the top flat wall and the bottom square patterned wall under gravity. In MC simulations of HSs between flat walls we observed disappearance of an intrinsic stacking fault through the glide of the Shockley partial dislocation in fcc (001) stacking forced by the stress from a small simulation box. The artifact that the driving force for the fcc (001) growth was the stress from the simulation box has been circumvented; the stress realizing the fcc (001) stacking has been replaced by that from square pattern on the bottom wall. Defect disappearance has also been observed for the square patterned bottom wall case.

Artificial electromagnetic (EM) medium and devices are designed with integrated micro- and macro-structures depending on the EM transmittance performance, which is difficult to fabricate by the conventional processes. Three-dimensional (3D) printing provides a new solution for the delicate artificial EM medium. This paper aims to first review the applications of 3D printing in the fabrication of EM medium briefly, mainly focusing on photonic crystals, metamaterials and gradient index (GRIN) devices. Then, a new design and fabrication strategy is proposed for the EM medium based on the 3D printing process, which was verified by the implementation of a 3D 90o Eaton lens based on GRIN metamaterials.

A new design and manufacturing strategy driven by the physical (EM transmittance) performance is proposed to illustrate the realization procedures of EM medium based device with controllable micro- and macro-structures. Stereolithography-based 3D printing process is used to obtain the designed EM device, an GRIN Eaton lens. The EM transmittance of the Eaton lens was validated experimentally and by simulation.

A 3D 90o Eaton lens was realized based on GRIN metamaterials structure according to the proposed design and manufacturing strategy, which had the broadband (12-18 GHz) and low loss characteristic. The feasibility of 3D printing for the artificial EM medium and GRIN devices has been verified for the further real applications in the industries.

The applications of 3D printing in artificial EM medium and devices were systematically reviewed. A new design strategy driven by physical performance for the EM device was proposed and validated by the firstly 3D printed 3D Eaton lens.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a novel chiral photonic crystal with thin thickness and small unit cells via numerical calculations. The multi-band circular dichroism is found in a wide frequency range from 400 to 600 THz by studying the transmission properties.

To investigate this chiral photonic structure, refection coefficients are analytically computed using finite element method. Numerical results are given, and physical properties are discussed, including the optical rotation, the circular dichroism and the absorption.

The results of this modeling and simulation under COMSOL multiphysics environment have led the authors to study the scattered parameters such as the coefficient of transmission (S21) and the coefficient of reflection (S11) for a 2D CPC nanostructure. The authors have also developed script under the Matlab environment which studies absorption and circular dichroism and ensure the existence of optical activity. According to the obtained results, the coefficient of transmission is proportional to the parameter of chirality.

The authors have designed a novel chiral photonic structure that exhibits larger circular dichroism. The CD spectrum has typically both positive and negative bands. The design principles defined in this work, which combine the concepts of the photonic crystal with the chiral structure (optical activity, circular dichroism and absorption), represent a model for simulation of the properties of a more complex chiral photonic structure. These results led to realization of novel circularly polarized devices in nanotechnologies.

This paper aims to provide a technical insight into recent developments in organic lasers and their applications to sensing.

Following a review of progress in organic lasers, this paper considers a number of recent sensor developments based on this technology. Finally, future prospects are briefly considered.

This shows that organic lasers are the tropic of a major research effort. The broad aims are to reduce the optical pumping power and ultimately to achieve purely electrical operation. Few sensors based on organic lasers have yet been reported but recent examples include explosive vapour detectors, lab‐on‐a‐chip devices and biosensors.

This paper provides a review of organic laser developments and sensors that exploit this technology.