Chinese Physics B

A novel complementary grating structure is proposed for plasmonic refractive index sensing due to its strong resonance at near-infrared wavelength. The reflection spectra and the electric field distributions are obtained via the finite-difference time-domain method. Numerical simulation results show that multiple surface plasmon resonance modes can be excited in this novel structure. Subsequently, one of the resonance modes shows appreciable potential in refractive index sensing due to its wide range of action with the environment of the analyte. After optimizing the grating geometric variables of the structure, the designed structure shows the stable sensing performance with a high refractive index sensitivity of 1642 nm per refractive index unit (nm/RIU) and the figure of merit of 409 RIU⁻¹. The promising simulation results indicate that such a sensor has a broad application prospect in biochemistry.

By applying nonequilibrium Green’s functions in combination with the density-functional theory, we investigate the electronic, thermal, and thermoelectric properties of four kinds of bases in DNA perpendicularly coupling between two ZGNR electrodes. The results show that the electron transport is highly sensitive to different base-ZGNR coupling geometries, and the system can present large rectifying and negative differential resistance effects. Moreover, the fluctuations of electronic transmission and super-low thermal conductance result in significant enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT): the ZT will be over 1.4 at room temperature, and over 1.6 at 200 K. The results show that the base-ZGNR coupling devices can present large rectifying, negative differential resistance, and enhanced thermoelectric effects.