FTMC Laser Researchers’ Team Paper on Structures for Advanced Sensors Featured on the Cover of a Prestigious Journal

A paper by researchers from the FTMC Department of Laser Technologies has been featured on the cover of the prestigious journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The publication is entitled “Grating-Coupled Plasmonic Resonances in Symmetric 2D Gold Nanobump Grating: Theory Meets Experiments.“

The authors are physicists Dr Evaldas Stankevičius and PhD student Kernius Vilkevičius from the Laboratory of Plasmonics and Nanophotonics, together with Dr Lina Grinevičiūtė, Head of the Optical Coatings Laboratory, and PhD student Lucciano Antonio Letelier Carreño.

The team’s research contributes to the development of advanced optical sensors. This technology is already widely used worldwide, ranging from early-stage medical diagnostics to fibre‑optic internet. The aim is to make such sensors even more sensitive, faster, cheaper to produce, and more compact.

The paper describes how FTMC researchers fabricated specific structures – gratings formed from periodically arranged gold nanobumps – in a thin gold film. The team investigated how different optical resonances emerge in such gratings (phenomena where light is strongly reflected or absorbed under certain conditions). Measurements were performed by varying the angle of incidence and azimuthal (rotation about an axis) angles of light, and the results were compared with theoretical computer simulations.

“This allowed us to determine the conditions under which particular resonances occur and the physical mechanisms that give rise to them. This knowledge helps us better understand how these gratings operate and enables more precise tuning of their application in optical sensors, spectroscopic measurements, and the control of light absorption and scattering,” says Dr Stankevičius.

This marks the third consecutive year in which FTMC laser researchers Evaldas Stankevičius and Kernius Vilkevičius, together with colleagues from Lithuania and abroad, have published papers featured on the covers of leading scientific journals. In 2024, they were recognised by Advanced Optical Materials, and in 2025 by Advanced Materials Technologies.

(Journal cover featuring gratings of gold nanobumps fabricated by laser writing. When illuminated at a specific angle, optical resonances are excited, enhancing desired electromagnetic signals. Illustration by PhD student Kernius Vilkevičius)

Source: FTMC