Generation of non-diffractive Lommel beams based on all-dielectric metasurfaces.

Lommel beam is a non-diffractive vortex beam of high concern recently, widely used in communication and turbulence studies. However, conventional methods of generating Lommel beams, such as using spatial light modulators (SLMs), are limited by their low resolution, poor phase manipulation, and small numerical aperture (NA). Here, non-diffractive Lommel beams based on all-dielectric metasurfaces are proposed. Using the Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase arrangement, the focal depth of the main lobe of the generated beam can reach 75 µm (∼119λ). Additionally, the broadband characteristics of the designed metasurface between 550 and 710 nm are observed. The resulting beam is demonstrated to show excellent self-healing properties by placing up obstacles. We also combine the phase of the Dammann grating with that of the Lommel beam to create a metasurface capable of producing a 1 × 4 Lommel beam array; the generated beams are still characterized by uniformity and non-diffraction. This study provides a new idea for Lommel beam generation with promising applications in optical communication, optical tweezers, and laser fabrication.

High Efficiency Focusing and Vortex Generator Based on Polarization-Insensitive Gallium Nitride Metasurface.

In this paper, two polarization-insensitive Gallium Nitride (GaN) metasurfaces based on a dynamic phase for adjusting the wavefront are proposed. Specifically, we obtained the target phase to satisfy some design conditions by changing the structural parameters at the nanoscales. Under the irradiation of linearly polarized (LP) light and circularly polarized (CP) light, respectively, one of the metasurfaces can generate a focused beam with an efficiency of 84.7%, and the other can generate a vortex beam with a maximum efficiency of 76.6%. Our designed metasurfaces will have important applications in optical communication, holographic projection, and particle capture.

First Characterization of a Hafnia Phage Reveals Extraordinarily Large Burst Size and Unusual Plaque Polymorphism.

A unique lytic phage infecting Hafnia paralvei was isolated and identified. Hafnia phage Ca belongs to the family Autographiviridae, possessing an icosahedral head with a diameter of 55 nm and a short non-contractile tail. Unusually, the burst size of Hafnia phage Ca of 10,292 ± 1,097 plaque-forming units (PFUs)/cell is much larger than other dsDNA phages reported before. Compared to the genome of the related phage, Hafnia phage Ca genome contains extra genes including DNA mimic ocr, dGTP triphosphohydrolase inhibitor, endonuclease, endonuclease VII, and HNH homing endonuclease gene. Extraordinarily, the phage developed different sizes of plaques when a single plaque was picked out and inoculated on a double-layer Luria broth agar plate with its host. Furthermore, varied packaging tightness for the tails of Hafnia phage Ca was observed (tail length: 4.35-45.92 nm). Most of the tails appeared to be like a cone with appendages, some were dot-like, bun-like, table tennis racket handle-like, and ponytail-like. Although the complete genome of Hafnia phage Ca is 40,286 bp, an incomplete genome with a deletion of a 397-bp fragment, containing one ORF predicted as HNH homing endonuclease gene (HEG), was also found by high throughput sequencing. Most of the genome of the virus particles in large plaques is complete (>98%), while most of the genome of the virus particles in small plaques is incomplete (>98%), and the abundance of both of them in medium-sized plaques is similar (complete, 40%; incomplete, 60%). In an experiment to see if the phage could be protective to brocade carps intramuscularly injected with H. paralvei LY-23 and phage Ca, the protection rate of Hafnia phage Ca to brocade carp (Cyprinus aka Koi) against H. paralvei was 33.38% (0.01 < p < 0.05). This study highlights some new insights into the peculiar biological and genomic characteristics of phage.

A novel freshwater cyanophage vB_MelS-Me-ZS1 infecting bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis elabens.

Blooms of cyanobacteria cause enormous losses in both the economy and environment. Cyanophages are of great potential for fighting blooming cyanobacteria. Research report on cyanophage of bloom-forming cyanobacterium, Microcystis elabens is deficient. vB_MelS-Me-ZS1 (abbreviated as Me-ZS1) was isolated from fresh water by double-layer agar plate method using M. elabens. TEM exhibited that cyanosiphovirus Me-ZS1 has an icosahedral head about 60 nm in diameter, and a noncontractile tail approximately 260 nm. Experimental infection against 15 cyanobacterial strains showed that Me-ZS1 can infect 12 strains across taxonomic orders (Chroococcales, Nostocales and Oscillatoriales). High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis revealed that Me-ZS1 has a double-stranded DNA genome of 49,665 bp, with a G + C content of 58.22%, and 73 predicted open reading frames (ORFs). BLASTn and ORF comparisons showed that Me-ZS1 shares very low homology with the public sequences, and the phylogenetic tree based on TerL indicated that Me-ZS1 may delegate a novel and genetically distinct clade of Siphoviridae phages. In microcosm experiment, Me-ZS1 represented apparent effect on reducing relative abundance of cyanobacteria, increasing relative abundance of Saprospiraceae and protecting brocade carp (Carassius auratus) in cyanobacterial bloom water. This study isolated and characterized a novel broad-host-range Microcystis phage Me-ZS1 presenting a genetically distinct clade of freshwater cyanophage. The features of cyanophage Me-ZS1 provide a potential solution to the loss caused by cyanobacterial bloom.

[Rapid simulation of electrode surface treatment based on Monte-Carlo model].

Micro- and integrated biosensor provides a powerful means for cell electrophysiology research. The technology of electroplating platinum black on the electrode can uprate signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity of the sensor. For quantifying analysis of the processing method of electroplating process, this paper proposes a grid search algorithm based on the Monte-Carlo model. The paper also puts forward the operational optimization strategy, which can rapidly implement the process of large-scale nanoparticles with different particle size of dispersion (20-200 nm) attac- hing to the electrode and shortening a simulation time from average 20 hours to 0.5 hour when the test number is 10 and electrode radius is 100 microm. When the nanoparticle was in a single layer or multiple layers, the treatment uniformity and attachment rate was analyzed by using the grid search algorithm with different sizes and shapes of electrode. Simulation results showed that under ideal conditions, when the electrode radius is less than 100 /m, with the electrode size increasing, it has an obvious effect for the effective attachment and the homogeneity of nanoparticle, which is advantageous to the quantitative evaluation of electrode array's repeatability. Under the condition of the same electrode area, the best attachment is on the circular electrode compared to the attachments on the square and rectangular ones.