text:
Anyway, I feel vindicated, I've only been talking about this since the day iOS 7 released [link, link, link, link]. The volume of news stories about individual bugs made it clear that iOS 7 had significant problems. Also, many Apple users just flat out do not like it.
I want you to take away three things from this article (and the ones linked to above):
- Apple has released its worst upgrade ever. It fails so badly it is kind of like Windows ME and Windows 8 combined.
- The iPhone 5S has sensors so faulty that it seems likely that Apple will have to recall all of them.
- iPhone 4 and 4S users are in major pain and Apple will not let them downgrade. If you have a 4 or 4S and have not yet "upgraded" you really should not do so. Apple should let these users downgrade.
iOS 7 problems:
Apple iOS 7, The Worst Operating System Released? : Biz/Tech : Jobs & Hire
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Image Is Fading With Bugs Of iOS7 | eFinance Hub
iPhone owners: more and more apple (appl) IOS 7 problems
Apple iOS 7 problems take away from the initial glamour
10News - iPhone owners report more Apple iOS 7 problems - Don't Waste Your Money Story
Review: Apple's New iOS Software Plagued by Problems | CIO Today
This next article annoys me with it's apologetic tone toward Apple. Here's a quote:
You just have to accept the reality that the iOS 7 is designed for the newer iPhone 5, 5S and 5C. The iOS 7 is just too much for the older hardware in the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Updating the OS in these older iPhones will cause owners to face a lot of issues regarding the iOS 7 behavior.That is his lede paragraph and it is simply infuriating:
- If iOS 7 is really for the newer phones, why did Apple release it for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S?
- Surely the author realizes that Apple was selling the iPhone 4 only a month ago and is still selling the iPhone 4S. Shouldn't one expect to still be able to run the latest software there?
- If it is so bad there, why is Apple not letting people downgrade? Apple has the capability to do this. That is how developers were able to test iOS 7 versions, yet get their phones back to a stable release when necessary.
iPhone 5S faulty sensor problem:
It is increasingly likely that Apple will need to recall all iPhone 5Ses over this issue:
Apple Inc. iPhone 5S Sensors Are Messed Up, Causing A Serious Issue
The iPhone 5S sensors are dangerously faulty: How did Apple mess up? | ExtremeTech
Apple could be ready to bosh Bosch - Thanks for the MEMS | TechEye
Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone 5S Sensor Glitch May Be Fault of Supplier


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College life is one of the most expensive phases of education, and of life as well. There are a million things to be paid for, be it tuition and stationery or rent and groceries. In this exciting time, there is always a shortage of money, especially when you need it the most.
As a college student you may have a part-time job, or you may be getting your finances from your parents. However, there's always need for a little more to help you get by. Online Payday Loans is a short-term loan that gets you from one paycheck to another. It's that little burst of money when you need it the most.
Don't bother with a loan that takes forever to get. A payday loan should be easy to get ideally a few clicks away. There's no need for intensive background credit checks or long waiting periods. A payday loan should reach the convenience of your bank account quickly. This way you can use the money when you really need it. No point in applying for a loan that is going to take forever to come, it's not like the university is going to sit around waiting for your tuition fees, is it"
These loans are affordable, which is a very important factor for college students. It's not like you have a lot of money to spare to pay back an expensive loan. And speaking of paying back, there's no point in taking a loan if you're going to be forced to pay it back when you cant. You need a payday loan with flexible payback options so that you can return the money in a time span and with amounts that you are comfortable with.
You shouldn't have to miss out on things in college because of financial restraints. There are always going to be so many things to do, so many choices to make. Some choices will be inevitable. However, it shouldn't seem like you are constantly giving up on things. A small payday loan could be all you need to be able to buy those new text books and go to the prom, without having to choose between the two.

subset: commoncrawl


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CycloMedia launches HD cyclorama's
CycloMedia, which supplies 360° panoramic photographs for the professional user, today officially launches the HD-Cyclorama product. The images for cycloramas are taken using a completely new camera system and offer a 100-megapixel resolution - 10 times higher than the previous generation of cycloramas. Dutch Press Release or English translation.


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Nineth Annual Dinner Gala
Saturday, October 20, 2018
After eight successful Annual Dinner Gala events, AAAEA - Capital Area is looking forward to another successful event this year. We had over 300 guests attend each of our past seven events. Among the many distinguished guests were US Secretary of Transportation, Maryland Lt. Governor, Ambassador Patrick Theros, President and Executive Director of US-Qatar Business Council, Maryland Transportation Secretary and Deputy Secretary, Maryland Secretary of the Environment, Deputy Secretary of Business and Economic Development in Maryland, Directors of Department of Public Works and Department of Transportation in the City of Baltimore, Director of Department of Public Works and Transportation in Prince George's County, City of Baltimore Mayor, and other industry leaders.
Keynote Speakers
Rushern L. Baker, III is the Seventh County Executive of Prince George's County, the highest income African-American majority County in America and the second largest jurisdiction by population in the State of Maryland. Since his election in November of 2010, Mr. Baker has worked closely with other state and regional leaders to pursue positive change, focusing on creating jobs, growing the economy, and improving public safety and education in the County. Since taking office, Mr. Baker has raised the profile of Prince George's County in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan region, implementing innovative programs designed to improve the quality of life for residents. Mr. Baker established The Economic Development Incentive Fund (EDIF), an unprecedented $50 million fund designed to stimulate business growth in the County. He is also addressing healthcare disparities through his leadership and advocacy for a new world-class Regional Medical Center in Prince George's County that will transform health care in the region. Mr. Baker introduced the Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative (TNI) in 2012 in order to uplift economically challenged neighborhoods in Prince George's County. Mr. Baker is very focused on improving education and public safety in the County. For the last two years he has ensured that schools and the County's public safety agencies receive adequate funding and resources. The result has been rising test scores and significant reductions in overall crime. Mr. Baker has also made significant reforms to ensure openness, transparency, and accountability in government. Under his leadership, the County recently launched CountyClick 3-1-1. Residents now have increased access to the government online or via a County call center. He also introduced CountyStat, a program used to measure and monitor government operations in order to improve service delivery by County agencies.
Mr. Baker has received many awards and honors including the National Forum for Black Public Administrators' National Leadership Award for Public Service and 2012 Most Innovative Executive of the Year for Minority Business from the Maryland/Washington Minority Contractors Association. Mr. Baker started his political career in the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 22-B from 1994 - 2003. During that time, he served on numerous committees and was Chair of the Prince George's County Delegation from 1999 to 2003. While in that role, Baker earned a reputation of being a consensus builder, an honest professional, and a tough, well-respected leader. In addition to his success in politics, Mr. Baker -an accomplished lawyer- has served as the legal counsel to a nonprofit community development and social services organization and as the executive director of an education reform nonprofit. From 1987 to 2001, Baker was also a member of the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps.
Rick Canizales currently serves as the Transportation Director for Prince William County.
Mr. Canizales has previously worked for Prince William County's Department of Transportation for 14 years. His most recent role with the department was as Transportation Planning Division Chief, where he was responsible for the management and operation of the Transportation Planning and Programming Division. Before working for the County, Mr. Canizales was employed by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission.
"Prince William County has one of the most successful road building programs in the Commonwealth," said Corey A. Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. "Rick Canizales' experience with planning, programming and funding transportation projects along with his relationships with regional, state and federal partners will be essential as we continue to improve the transportation and commuting options for the residents of Prince William County."
Mr. Canizales received his Bachelor's Degree in Urban Studies and his Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Transportation Planning and Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University. He resides in Prince William County with his wife and two children.
Amer Zahr Is an Arab-American comedian, speaker, writer, academic, and adjunct professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He draws on his experiences growing up as a child of Palestinian immigrant parents. Amer performed at many venues including a packed house at New York City's world-famous Carnegie Hall, John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. (where he produced this show as well, making it the first time that an all-Palestinian cast took the stage at the internationally-renowned venue).He has produced and headlined in 3 of his own comedy tours, "1001 Laughs Comedy Tour," "We're Not White!" and "In 1948." He founded and produced the first-ever "1001 Laughs Ramallah Comedy Festival." The festival entertained over 2,000 locals and was funded by the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, a branch of the United States Department of State. He received great acclaim and much media attention from major media outlets such as the CNN and BBC Arabic.
He is also the author of the well-read blog "The Civil Arab," as well as his first book, "Being Palestinian Makes Me Smile," a collection of his writings relating to being Palestinian.He appeared on radio and television, including ABC's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher." Some of his writings have been featured in major publications, including Time magazine, and Al-Jazeera.
John Sproston A heraldic and graphic artist for thirty-three years. One of his work accepted for a show called "Earth Views" organized by the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian later purchased it for their collection. For the Twelfth Annual Benedictine Art Awards contest, one of his water-color art pieces was included in a Manhattan show in New York City. It is now in a Boston private collection. In Spring 1989 the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland exhibited his work in a one-man show named "People and Places". More recently, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 44-cent stamp using his design for the ship's arms of the "Arleigh Burke".
John continues to paint, primarily portraits but also animals and residences to order. He often works from photographs when live settings are not possible. Working with clients to achieve a satisfying solution to their requests has always been for his a most valuable part of the process.
Thoria Hassan: graduated from the Faculty of Engineering School of Architecture In Alexandria, Egypt. Thoria's interest in art and architecture developed in her early childhood. She grew up seeing the beautiful artwork and paintings created by her father and mother. This early enthusiasm became the driving force to express her creativity. Thoria has always been inspired by ancient Egyptian art and architecture. When she was a child, Thoria lived in Upper Egypt (Luxor and Aswan), and was always so amazed by the Egyptian temples, especially Abu Simbel, Karnak, Luxor and the great Pyramids.
Thoria has been surrounded by an extremely supportive family, friends, and colleagues, who have encouraged her along the way. She is indeed privileged to be living her passion, following her dream, and sharing her work with others. Thoria's artwork ranges from painting with different Media - such as acrylic, oil color, watercolor, and creative three-dimensional glasswork.
Michele Foshee Michele inspiration comes from all things in the natural world - from the spider crawling in his web, to a majestic vista, to people in everyday scenarios - She sees the beauty in all of it and want to capture and share the special moments she witnesses. She travels as often as possible and return with catalogs of inspiring photos to work from when she is unable to work en plein air.
She has worked as a graphic designer, freelance illustrator, art director, fine artist, and entrepreneur. Her work has been published by National Geographic, Smithsonian, National Park Service, SeaWorld, the White House, as well as countless other local, national, and international entities.
She accept commissions for paintings and drawings, but also has a large catalog of art for sale on her website and social media outlets. Her most common commissions are portraits (pets and people!) and landscapes from vacations or special occasions from photographs in a variety of media, including: watercolor, pastel, pen and ink, colored pencil, acrylic, oil - pretty much anything that will make a mark.


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Pain will come before gain with Whanganui ratepayers set to face an average rates rise of 4.5 per cent this year.
The figure was revealed as the Whanganui District Council voted yesterday to put its draft long term plan out for public consultation.
It is the biggest rates rise planned for the next 10 years with average increases of 2.4 per cent a year expected over the following decade.
Residential property rates will rise by about 5.6 per cent or $140, bringing the average residential rates bill up to $2650 for 2018-2019.
Rates for farms will rise 0.5 per cent or $22 on average while commercial rates will rise by an average of $90 or 0.9 per cent.
Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said this year was always going to be a big year for rates - partly due to the new wastewater treatment plant becoming operational - but it had been brought down from what was once going to be 12 per cent rise.
"I think this is a good plan. I think the important thing to do now is to hear from the community," he said.
Councillor Kate Joblin said the plan struck a balance.
"This plan hits the sweet spot of being prudent but forward thinking. I hope this community has a view and lets us know that view through the consultation process," she said.
The impact of forestry harvesting on the district's roads, the revitalisation of Whanganui's port and improvements to stormwater infrastructure are three areas of focus for the council over the next decade.
It plans to hit exotic forestry properties with a 59 per cent rate ($712) rate increase to deal with the impact logging is expected to have on the district's roads.
Councillor Alan Taylor was pleased the plan focused on important issues such as stormwater and roading.
"If you don't have resilience ... you won't have a city and you won't have a district. These things are pretty critical, everything else follows."
Councillor Helen Craig said while each councillor wanted a two per cent rise it could not be done this year.
"Whatever part we cut, it would be a major part of our community that would be really upset.
"We are nowhere near what it could have been and that definitely is down to the effort of this council, the staff and the chief executive who have revolutionised this organisation."
Council debt will hit $113 million in June this year but the plan aims to pay off $30million in a decade.
Public consultation begins on Monday and Mr McDouall said council planned a number of initiatives over the coming weeks.
The document will be made available to the public from March 19 and public submissions are open until April 19.


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The Corbin Family
Allen and Mallory Corbin live in Atlanta, GA and have four children Bo (7), Laurabeth (5), Lucas (3), and Annamarie (1). They officially joined Four Corners
in September 2016. Allen is originally from Chipley, FL and has spent most of his life working in different sectors of the agricultural industry and
a couple of years in the family grocery business. Mallory was a fourth grade school teacher before becoming a work-from-home mom in 2011.
In 2014 Allen and Mallory moved to Atlanta as missionaries to an inner-city neighborhood. In 2011 God began to lay Uganda and South Sudan on their hearts and in February 2016 Allen and Mallory made a trip to Abaana's Hope where God began to work in their hearts to stay there full time. They have a heart for discipleship and want to be used by God to help people understand their identities more and reveal the glory of God by sharing the Gospel in their hearts and lives. They are incredibly humbled by the opportunity to serve God and know their only qualifications are by His grace.
The Mobbs Family
Kris and Julie are from Buford, Georgia. They met in Birmingham, Alabama where they graduated from Samford University. They have three children Chase,
Cooper and Zoe. The family accepted God's call to become missionaries at Four Corners in 2015. Kris has his masters in Christian education and Julie
has a business degree and has spent several years working in the insurance industry.
After being a pastor for 12 years, and having spent 18 months serving at Abaana's Hope he assumed the role of president at the ministry. He and his family now plans to split their time between serving Four Corners stateside and serving FCM missionaries in Africa.
The Moody Family
Josh and Kim Moody are from Gardendale, AL. They are the parents of six children Ella, Avery, Addi, Steven, Mark, and Gaines. They officially came on board
with Four Corners in May of 2014. They have been serving at Abaana's Hope since May of 2016.
Josh is originally from Albertville, AL and has worked as a mortgage loan officer in his family's company in Cullman, AL for the last 13 years. Kim, originally from Montevallo, has been a stay-at-home mom since their twins were born in 2004. They fell in love with the country and people of Uganda when they adopted their sons (Steven and Mark) from there in 2010.
The Moody family has been a great addition to the FCM team.
The Payton Family
Jamie and Sheri are from Enterprise, AL. They met at Ft. Rucker while serving in the military and were married in 2003. They have three kids, Vanessa,
Jacob and Samantha, and officially joined Four Corners in December 2014, and moved to Gulu, Uganda in 2016. Jacob and Samantha moved with them and
Vanessa their eldest stayed in Alabama to attend university. Jamie retired from the army in 2012 and served as a pastor for administration and Bible
studies. He is a graduate of Liberty University and has a bachelor's degree in religion. Sheri has served the Army for more than two decades as an
air traffic controller, first as a soldier, and after separating in 2003, as a civilian.
God began transforming and breaking their hearts for the Acholi people during the two years they were preparing and planning to lead a mission team to Abaana's Hope. They have answered God's call to become full-time missionaries and to serve the Acholi people with Four Corners Ministries. Their heart's desire is to see the Gospel shared and lives transformed.
The West Family
Holly and her husband Myron from Alexander City, AL joined Four Corners in 2012 and became full-time missionaries in Gulu, Uganda in 2013. They married
in June 1992 and had two children, Ryan and Rachel. The family assisted with the planning and daily operational management of the various Abaana's
Hope ministries. In 2016 Myron contracted malaria which sadly led to his passing a month later.
Before joining the ministry Holly worked for the State of Alabama as an office manager for three different health departments for almost 22 years. She believes God blessed her with admin skills and that her love for the Acholi people will help her do her job to the best of her ability.
Holly's faith in God and love for the Acholi people have never wavered and she still serves Four Corners at the stateside office. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Bullen Timo
Bullen is from South Sudan. He grew up during the civil war that lasted for more than 21 years where he lost his father and brothers and was separated
from his family. He found his hope in Christ when he became a follower of Christ.
Four Corners sponsored Bullen through the Educate Africa Program which allowed him to earn his business degree from Troy University. Bullen is going back to South Sudan to share the Gospel through economic development by creating a sustainable Christ-centered business improving the quality of life and reducing poverty.


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So Mommy T tagged me. I suppose this means like her I'm supposed to disclose 5 things about myself others might not know. The problem is, is all I do is talk about me. Doesn't everyone know everything? Hmmm…… I put some things, but bear with me if it's common knowledge.
1) I was first a dancer before a cyclist/tri-girl. I danced from 3 to age 20 when I got hit by a car and broke my patella. This led me to getting basically kicked out of the modern dance program at the U. Which in turn left more time for biking and running. LUCKY ME!!!—I do miss dancing sometimes still….
2) I had 2 types of jobs in high school. I framed houses for my dad and I also baby-sat and cleaned some of my neighbor's houses.
3) My nicknames growing up were: School friends called me Ciesle and Crazy Rach (that one still comes up a lot), My dad called me Rachel Sue (long story) and my favorite neighborhood mom called me dancing vegetarian, or running vegetarian when she saw me out, and it was Cinderella when I cleaned her house (I always wondered if she knew my real name).
4) I used to be a science geek. My science projects each year led me to the international competitions and also NASA had me go to their jet propulsion labs in Pasadena when I was a senior in high school to present some of my research. It's hard to believe Rachel's mind used to work like that. Word of advice. NEVER sustain brain trauma-not good for the mind 🙂
5) I was given my first race bike by my friend Josh Henderson. I am forever thankful for him for dragging me to my first mountain bike race in St. George in 1999 where I was completely humiliated by the beginner's field. From that point forward, I knew I wanted to be a bike racer. I still want to be a bike racer/ tri-geek—Makes my world go round!
So five other cyclists who need to disclose 5 things others might not know. Art, Sly, T-Bird, Jorge, & Danny R


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kids' philharmonic@sg is a non-profit organisation which had its beginnings as a pilot project organised by MusArt Edu Hut, a private music school committed to the training of classical music in Singapore. It had performed unofficially for the first time in December 2011 at the Esplanade Recital Hall. It was followed by a sold-out concert soon after and has since developed into kids'philharmonic@sg. It made its inaugural debut at the Singapore Conference Hall on September 9, 2012.
kids' philharmonic@sg believes strongly in the educational benefits of playing in an orchestra. Student musicians get to work together as a group, developing teamwork and leadership in the process. In doing so, all musicians learn to play in tandem with the others, hitting the same notes at the same time, while observing standardized tempo, dynamics, and bowing. Through it all, it instills a high level of discipline in the members.
kids' philharmonic@sg, had received the prestigious "Gold" award in "One Future" World Orchestra Festival in Vienna in 2015. Recently, it had also collaborated with the Vienna Boys' Choir for a concert in 2016 and received an overwhelming standing ovation. kids' philharmonic@sg is also a recipient of the National Arts Council's Seed Grant for the period of 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2018.
To find out more about our Vision, Mission and Values, click here.
To find out more about the orchestra structure, click here.


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Jun 282012 comments
By callie
thursday tidbits
greetings y'all! it's that time again…let's dive right in, shall we?
i love a good katie ridder wallpaper. and wouldn't you know, i have an example right here?! now – have you seen bailey at peppermint bliss's before and afters in her austin, tx home? the bathrooms especially are bananas. i love that when renovating this particular bathroom, she was on bed rest and could not oversee the installing of the tile…and they were supposed to be turned at 45 degree angles to be a quatrefoil pattern. i thought it looked fab at first glance though!
it's been pretty warm around these parts. in all seriousness, the thought of hauling two kids and all of their gear to the pool….alone….chasing after a wily 3-year-old boy and tending to a baby in a float simultaneously…it makes me want to cry real tears. so what is one to do? THIS of course!
i am sure our neighbors are super impressed and uber glad we moved to the street. between that and the skivvy sprinkler runs, we are really making a name for ourselves here.
speaking of our neighborhood, i stopped by a neighbor's house yesterday (i love our listserve) to grab two slightly used toddler car seats that we will use for rinne once she switches from the infant seat. i was by myself and just tossed them into my car along with my other two car seats i always have in the back seat. y'all, 4 car seats is a lot to have in a sedan. and then i stopped by a nursery to pick up a few plants for the garden (if you're thinking hello, trunk?, it's full. strollers.) i kept snickering to myself driving down the road with this next to me, wondering what i would think if i saw this sight along with three other car seats in the back. perhaps – a gardening hoarder with a penchant for child or purse safety? maybe i'm a mom who REFUSES to upgrade to a minivan, therefore necessitating a child's car seat to be put in the front seat (which i'm fairly certain is illegal).
it just really made me laugh.
we've been working on lots of birth announcements this summer! this custom calligraphy birth announcement in bright, feminine colors just puts a smile on my face. it's so happy.
lots more fun things to show you soon in our new and improved website we're busily working on!!


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Miles Serkin-Mazel, Ohio
Miles Serkin-Mazel gave me genital herpes. He knew he had it as he gave it to a mutual friend too and she told him after and he said he knew he had it! I'm writing this because others should be warned about this as genital herpes is no joke and it's something I now have for life thanks to Miles. This is a serious issue and he should be called out for his lack of consideration for others. I think it's a crime to know you have a sexually transmitted disease which is life long and not disclose this to a future partner.


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1. Introduction
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in honeycomb structures, has attracted extensive attentions since the advent of free-standing graphene sheets in 2004.1) Because of the linear dispersion relation of Dirac electronic states, graphene demonstrates the unique electrical and optical properties,2,3) such as high carrier mobility, broadband operation, and a tunable band gap, which make it a fantastic material for photonics and optoelectronics.4-6) The optical response of graphene can be described by the surface conductivity which is originated from the contributions of inter-band and intra-band transitions, related to the chemical potential or Fermi level.7,8) In the near-infrared and visible frequencies, the graphene manifests a strong absorption caused by the inter-band transitions.7,9) In the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies, the graphene behaves as an ultrathin metal film, supporting the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with the greatly enhanced local fields at the graphene surface.10-13) Compared with the conventional metal palsmons primarily working in the visible frequencies, the SPPs in graphene demonstrate a stronger confinement and lower loss, that is, an extremely short wavelength and a long propagation distance.12) Most important, SPPs in graphene can be dynamically tuned by the chemical doping14) or electrostatic gating.15) As a result, graphene has promising applications for high performance SPP-based nano-devices.16)
Due to the large mismatch between the wave vector of SPPs and the incident light, many methods, such as nanoemitters/tips scattering,12,13,17-23) gratings24-27) and prism coupling, 28,29) have been proposed. However, the coupling efficiency in the above methods is very low. Alternatively, the structured graphene (sub-wavelength nanoparticles) can demonstrate localized surface plasmons (LSPs) resonance with a strongly confined local field at the surface of nanoparticles. 30-37) Compared with the propagating SPPs, LSPs resonance is a non-propagating regime and can be directly excited by a light with appropriate polarization and frequency. Apart from the strong light-matter interaction for sensing applications, the structured graphene is capable of modulating phase and amplitude used in polarization converter, 38,39) optical activity40) and wavefront reshaping applications. 41-44)
The optical response for the monolayer graphene usually has a limited modulation depth due to the fact of single atomic thickness. To obtain a more powerful capacity of modulation, the hybrid graphene/metasurfaces have been proposed as a possible solution.45-48) Metasurfaces are composed of sub-wavelength scatters which can interact with the electric or magnetic field components of incident light to produce the desired responses, including the phase shift, amplitude and polarization. By arranging the spatial distribution of the designed scatters treated as the tiny secondary sources, the metasurface can arbitrarily manipulate the electromagnetic wavefront, leading to myriad applications, such as holograms,49-51) meta-lens52-55) and abnormal refraction. 56-58) Compared with the conventional optical components or bulky metamaterials59,60) depending on the electromagnetic wave propagating in the bulky media to gradually accumulate the changes of wavefront, the metasurfaces can realize the abrupt changes in a sub-wavelength-thin thickness, endowing the superior advantages of miniaturization, lightening and thinning. A drawback of conventional metasurfaces is non-tunability after they were fabricated. The versatile functionality of metasurfaces depends on the unit cells which are implemented by metallic patterns or dielectric cubes based on the plasmonic or Mie resonances.56,61-63) It opens up an avenue to dynamically control light when the active graphene integrates with metasurfaces, which demonstrates more extensive application prospects, such as fast optical modulators,46,64-67) switches45,47) and other optical devices.68,69) In addition, graphene is compatible with the nanofabrication technology and easy to be integrated into the nano/micro-sized metasurfaces.
This paper is organized as described below. In section 2, we overview the surface conductivity of graphene from terahertz to visible frequencies by the random-phase approximation (RPA) theory. In section 3, we introduce the propagating SPPs in graphene, including the characteristics, SPPs excitation, and SPPs hybridization. In section 4, we introduce LSPs in the structured graphene, modulation depth of absorption and electromagnetic applications, such as polarizer and meta-lens. In section 5, we overview the hybrid graphene/metallic metasurface working from terahertz to near-infrared frequencies, and the hybrid graphene/dielectric metasurface mainly working in the near-infrared frequencies. In the last section, we provide some concluding remarks and present an outlook on future research directions.
2. Surface Conductivity of Graphene
2.1. Surface conductivity at terahertz and infrared frequencies
The optical response of graphene is derived from the dynamic surface conductivity closely related to chemical potential or Fermi level. It can be derived with the random-phase approximation (RPA) theory8) and originate from the contribution of intra-band and inter-band transitions as below,
where e is the electron charge, kB is the Boltzmann's constant, ħ is the reduced Planck's constant, T is the temperature, and ω is the angular frequency of incident light. τ is the relaxation time and estimated by expression , where vf = 106 m/s is the Fermi velocity, u is the carrier mobility of graphene and ranges from 1000 cm2/Vs in chemical vapor deposition (CVD)70,71) to 100 m2/Vs in suspended graphene.72) EF is the Fermi level which translates to the carrier concentration of . In most cases, the Fermi energy EF is limited range of −1.0 eV to 1.0 eV as the consideration of device requirements to guarantee against the breakdown electric field of the gate dielectric.73) The first and second terms are attributed to the intra- and inter-band transitions, respectively.
Figure 1 is the calculated results based on Eq. (1). In the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies where the photonic energy is far below the double Fermi level (ħω << 2|EF|), the surface conductivity of graphene are dominated by the intra-band transitions (Fig. 1(a)). The inter-band transitions are diminished due to the presence of electrons and holes near the band edges (Pauli blocking). The surface conductivity can be reduced to
When the Fermi level is EF >> kBT, the surface conductivity is further simplified to
From Eqs. (2) and (3), the graphene just behaves as a conductive film and can be described by a classical Drude model. As a result, the graphene can support the transverse magnetic (TM) polarized SPPs. The surface conductivity presents a linear relationship with the Fermi level EF. Note that a considerable loss caused by the intra-band transitions is inevitable in the terahertz frequencies (Fig. 1(b)) which can be utilized to modulate amplitude by the absorption in graphene instead.
However, in the mid-infrared frequencies, the surface conductivity approaches the minimum due to the Pauli blocking and a relatively large incident frequency, degenerating the inter-band and intra-band transitions (Fig. 1(a)). The imaginary part of conductivity becomes dominant over the real part, facilitating to support the transverse magnetic SPPs with an extremely low loss (Fig. 1(b)). In the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies, the conductivity of graphene has a largely tunable range which is facilitated to large-scalely tune the amplitude or frequency of the plasmon resonance when the graphene critically couples with the meta-surface of enhanced local field. Besides, the very thin "metal" layer can be further tailored to different shapes to obtain the desired resonances and reshape wavefront.
For the numerical simulations, graphene is often modeled as an anisotropic medium with in-plane effective permittivity as
where ɛ0 is the vacuum permittivity, tg is the thickness of graphene, is the plasm frequency. The out-plane effective permittivity is equal to the vacuum permittivity of ɛeff,n = 1.0.
2.2. Surface conductivity at near-infrared and visible frequencies
On the contrary, the inter-band transitions become a decisive factor (ħω > 2|EF|) in the near-infrared and frequencies, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The free carrier scattering rate τ−1 can be treated as zero due to the small quantity compared with the incident frequency.74) The real part of the surface conductivity is changed from 0 to e2/4ħ (universal optical conductivity) by electrically tuning Fermi level, which results in a modulation of absorption from 0 to 2.3% under the normal incidence. Obviously, the limited range of surface conductivity also limits the modulation depth of an isolated graphene, no matter for the transmission, reflection and absorption.75) To get a large modulation, the metasurface which can capture light from free space and offer a local filed enhancement in plane (two to three orders of magnitude larger than the incident field) is critical coupling with the tunable graphene. Besides, the imaginary part of the graphene permittivity becomes dominant over the real part so that the surface plasmons cannot be sustained at the graphene surface.10) In the visible frequencies, graphene can be visualized despite of only a single atom thick, due to a significant absorption πα = 2.3%, where α = 1/137 is the fine structure constant that describes coupling between light and electrons.
3. Propagating Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Graphene
3.1. Properties of SPPs
The SPP is a collective oscillation of conduction electrons or holes along the boundary surface of a metal or semiconductor under the drive of electric field component of an incident light. It can highly confine the plasmonic wave and strongly enhance the electric field in the vicinity of surface, promising applications for the light-mater interactions, such as chemical, biological sensing and surface-enhanced Raman scattering.79) As stated above, the graphene behaves as a metal film in the terahertz and infrared frequencies, i.e. it is capable of supporting transverse magnetic polarized SPPs. For the simplest dielectric/continuous graphene sheet (the size larger than SPPs wavelength)/dielectric prototype, the dispersion relationship of SPPs is given by10,80)
where β is the wave-vector of SPPs in graphene, ɛr1 and ɛr2 are the permittivity of dielectric above and below the graphene. Note that the precondition for the establishment of Eq. (5) is k0 << β << kF (in non-retarded regime and long wavelength limit), where k0 and kF are the vacuum and Fermi wave-vectors. For a finite β compared with kF, the dispersion of SPPs will deviate the Eq. (5) and present a linear relationship or damping regime.81) In addition, the dispersion of SPPs is also influenced by the polar medium, where the surface optical phonons couple with the SPPs via a long-range Frohlich coupling.82)
Compared with the conventional noble metal (silver and gold) plasmons, the graphene supported SPPs have many prominent properties. (1) Huge modal index or extensive confinement. For clarity, the Eq. (5) is simplified to
where the scattering rate τ−1 is assumed to zero, α = e2/4π ħɛ0c = 1/137 is the fine structure constant, the weight of ħω/EF is order of 1. Hence, the wave-vector of SPPs in graphene is two orders of magnitude bigger than the vacuum wave-vector.13,19,20) The wave-vector of SPPs in the noble metal, by contrast, is slightly larger than the vacuum wave-vector.83) (2) Relatively low losses or longer propagation. In the mid-infrared frequencies, the surface conductivity reaches the minimum, as shown in Fig. 1. The real part of permittivity in the graphene dominate the imaginary part, resulting in a relatively low damping loss of SPPs and a longer propagation length about hundreds of wavelength of SPPs, comparing to a range of tens of optical cycle for SPPs on metals. (3) Dynamic tunability. From Eq. (5), the propagation of SPPs in graphene is related to the Fermi level which can be tuned by electric field, magnetic field, electrostatic gating and chemical doping in real time. (4) Broadband operation. For the SPPs at the metal/dielectric surface which only works for the frequencies close to the plasma frequency of metal. At terahertz and infrared frequencies, the metal behaves as a perfect conductor with delocalized SPPs. On the contrary, the SPPs can be supported by the graphene from terahertz to near-infrared frequencies by controlling the Fermi level. These unique features make the graphene a promising platform for the active SPP-based nano-optoelectronic devices, plasmonics and transformation optical devices by spatially varying the graphene Fermi level in the terahertz and infrared frequencies. 84)
3.2. SPPs excitation
The major challenge is to efficiently excite SPPs in graphene with a free space incident light due to the large wave-vector mismatch between two waves. Conventional plasmonics approaches, such as the diffractive grating,24-27) shifts the wave-vector of the incident light to compensate the mismatch due to Bragg scattering following the expression of β = sinθk0 + 2nπ/Λ, where n is the diffraction order, Λ is the periodicity, θ is the incident angle. Fig. 2(a) and (b) show the silicon-diffractive grating-assisted graphene plasmon excitation by guided-wave resonance.24) The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurement result of T+/T//, where T+ and T// are the transmission spectrum under the normal incidence polarized perpendicular and parallel to the gratings lines, demonstrates a resonant dip due to the absorption of SPPs in the graphene (Fig. 2(c)). It is noted that, to efficiently excite the SPPs, a large coupling length is required (in the order of incident wavelength), which goes against the compactness of the nanodevices and bring a challenge to the nanofabrication.
Another conventional method to excite the SPPs is using the prism coupling,28,29) such as the Otto or Kretschmann configurations,85,86) where the evanescent wave propagates along the metal-dielectric interface, due to the total internal reflection under the condition of the incident angle (θ) larger than the critical angle (θc). However, the huge difference of wave-vector between the evanescent wave and the incident light requires a high refractive index of the prism (np≈10-100), according to the equation β = k0npsinθ, which is not available practically. Nikitin et al.29) proposed a tactful configuration (Fig. 2(d)) to excite the SPPs in graphene based on the compression of surface polaritons (SPs) on the tapered slabs of a polaritonic material supporting either surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) or SPPs, as shown in Fig. 2(e) and (f). The SPhPs or SPPs generating by the prism coupler propagate along the tapered slab and gradually yield a compression of wavelength to match the SPPs in graphene finally.
Besides the above methods, the excitation of SPPs is also proposed by coupling the near field of the nano-emitters with graphene.12,13,17-23) Typically, the metallized tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) illuminated by a focused infrared laser beam generates strong evanescent electric fields with a wide range of in-plane momenta which can effectively excite the graphene plasmons. In combination with the scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM),13,19,20,23) the SPPs reflected or scattered by the external and internal edges, atomic defects, and boundaries of single-layer or multilayer graphene are visualized including amplitude and phase. Fig. 3(a) shows the illustration of the tip-induced SPPs excitation.20) Under the illumination of a CO2 laser with a wavelength of λ = 10.8 μm, the s-SNOM amplitude and phase exhibits the standing waves for SPPs due to the existence of external (transition from single and bilayer graphene) and internal (folds and grain boundaries) defects. The SPPs wavelength (λspp) in single and bilayer graphene are (260 ± 10) nm and (190 ± 10) nm, with a reflection coefficient of R̃ = −1, respectively (Fig. 3(b)). The SPPs in both sides of the line defects have different wavelength of 240 nm and 260 nm, as well as different reflection coefficients of R̃ = 0.45 and 0.55 (Fig. 3(c)). The ratio of λspp/λ0 is in the order of the fine structure constant. Besides, the change of Fermi level can effectively tune the SPPs wavelength. The full amplitude and phase spatially resolved imaging provides nano-scale insight into the local electronic structure and dynamics in graphene.
Figure 3(d) demonstrates the propagating SPPs in graphene excited by the dipole nano-antenna under the incident light (λ0 = 10.20 μm or 11.06 μm) polarized parallel to the long axis and imaged by s-SNOM with a dielectric Si-tip which passively scatter the near field of the graphene plasmon and gather the cross-polarization with a polarizer in front of the detector.87) The study shows the efficiency of resonance is enhanced by a factor of 28 compared with the nonresonant antennas. Besides, the wavefront of SPPs can be engineered by the shape of resonant antennas, such as concave and convex extremities (Fig. 3(e) and (f)). Further, the author demonstrated the propagating direction of SPPs can be controlled by a 2D graphene bilayer prism based on the conductivity patterns84) and revealed that the wavenumber in graphene is also influenced by the number of graphene layers (λspp ~ N−1/2, N is the number of layers) which qualitatively followed the Snell' law (Fig. 3(g)).37)
Furthermore, the SPPs in graphene can be visualized by the electron energy-loss (EEL) spectrum imaging22) at the atomic scale which offers a platform to study the effect of single atom on monolayer graphene sheets and brings the possibilities for designing atomic-scale optoelectronic and plasmonic devices.
3.3. SPPs hybridization
So far, we mainly review the excitation of SPPs in monolayer graphene sheet with a large size compared with the plasmon wavelength. Actually, the interaction of spatially separated graphene sheets is also an important subfield of graphene plasmon, because it is not only a fundamental issue but also provides a wider range of application prospects. Fig. 4(a) shows a graphene waveguide splitter.88) The propagating SPPs in the high doped graphene (ħω << EF) are completely transferred to the adjacent graphene by the weak SPPs coupling in the coupling region (top, Fig. 4(a)). By decreasing the Fermi level of the graphene in the upper or low coupling region to the condition of 2|EF| < ħω, where the graphene no longer supports SPPs (middle and bottom, Fig. 4(a)), the configuration realizes a tunable optical splitter or switch. Then, the author studied the strong coupling of SPPs in the monolayer graphene sheet arrays (MGSA) (Fig. 4(b)),89) which are physically different from the above case with weak coupling and demonstrate interesting properties (Fig. 4(c)). Beyond that, the SPPs in the monolayer graphene ribbon and the plasmonic hybridization of the spatially separated graphene ribbons are also intensively studied.90,91) The graphene ribbon supports an edge SPPs (E-SPPs) with a strongly localized field at the ribbon edges except the waveguide SPPs with the field concentration within the ribbon area. Especially, the graphene ribbon pairs demonstrate a more intensive enhancement of field.91)
Benefiting from the fascinating properties of SPPs in graphene in the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies, the graphene opens up an exciting opportunity for the active sub-wavelength optics and the extremely compact optoelectronic devices.
4. Localized Surface Plasmons in Structured Graphene
4.1. Properties of LSPs
Different from the propagating SPPs, the LSPs are the non-propagating excitation of conductions of sub-wavelength metallic particles coupled with the incident light. It can be resonantly excited with a light of appropriate frequency and polarization, irrespective of the wave-vector match required in the propagating SPPs. At the plasmon resonant frequency, the LSPs are strongly confined to the surface of sub-wavelength particles and result in a significant electric field enhancement, facilitating to capture the incident light in solar cell and light-mater interaction for sensing applications. In the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies, the noble metals are too metallic so that the metallic micro-structures suffer from a relatively poor field confinement, going against the non-destructive sensing. Alternatively, the graphene, as an excellent plasmonic material with an adjustable plasma frequency, can be structured into different shapes such as micro/nano-ribbons,30-34) nano-tubes35) and disks36,37) which are capable of exploring the tunable LSPs in the terahertz and infrared frequencies.
Figure 5(a) and (b) are the graphene micro-ribbons32) and nano-ribbons34) tuned by the electrostatic electrolyte-gating and back-gating configurations working in the terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies, respectively. The extinction spectral in transmission is defined as 1−T/TR, where T is the transmission through the graphene ribbons with an electric field perpendicular to the ribbons, TR is the referenced transmission with different types, such as transmission through substrate without graphene ribbons,34) transmission through graphene ribbons at the charge neutral point (CNP)32) and transmission through graphene ribbons with electric fields parallel to the ribbons.33) The extinction spectral indicates a strong absorption and exhibits a prominent peak at the LSPs resonance. The frequency and strength of the maximum absorption can be tuned by the bias voltage, which clearly demonstrates a plasmon tunability through electrical gating, as shown in Fig. 5(c). In particular, when the duty ratio is below 0.5, the coupling of the graphene ribbons is negligible that the resonant wavelength of LSPs is identical to the case of isolated ribbon.92) The resonant wavelength of LSPs approximately satisfied
where w is the width of ribbon, m is the number of nodes with zero fields. Substituting Eq. (6) into Eq. (7), we can conclude the resonant wavelength is related to the ribbon width and the carrier concentration following the scaling behavior of λp∝w1/2|σs|−1/2∝w1/2|EF|−1/2∝w1/2n−1/4 (Fig. 5(d) and 5(e)), which is different from the conventional two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), where λp∝w1/2n−1/2. Note that the LSPs can be further influenced by the shape of particles, the distance between particles and the number of layers.
However, in the monolayer graphene, LSPs resonance depending on the carrier concentration is usually very weak, which leads to a limited modulation depth of frequency and strength (ΔA ~ 10%) by varying the Fermi level of graphene. Recently, the multilayer graphene/insulator structures,37) shown in Fig. 5(f), demonstrates a larger tunability. The absorption strength is greatly enhanced (ΔA ~ 50%) and the resonant frequency is blue-shift with the increasing number of graphene disk (Fig. 5(g)). These phenomena are similar to the case of the monolayer graphene with the rise of carrier concentration or Fermi level. For the multilayer graphene/insulator stacks, the resonant wavelength of LSPs needs to be taken the layer number into consideration and scaled as λp∝N−1/2 (Fig. 5(h)), leading to a relatively large tunable range compared with the monolayer graphene. In addition, the resonant wavelength of LSPs is significantly influenced by the Coulomb interactions among graphene disks, as shown in Fig. 5(i).
Although the multilayer graphene structure can realize a relatively large tunable range, the complicated preparation method limits the development of particle applications. Therefore, we will focus on the applications using the monolayer structured graphene in the following of this section.
4.2. Modulation depth of graphene absorption
A simple situation is first considered where the incident wave at an angle θ1 moves from a medium of refractive index n1 to a second medium of refractive index n2. A monolayer graphene with the surface conductivity of σs at the interface between two dielectrics is treated as a zero thickness conductive film. The transmission and reflection coefficients for TE and TM polarized waves can be expressed by the modified Fresnel equations:93)
where Z0 = 120π is the wave impedance of vacuum, θ2 = asin(sinθ1n1/n2) is the refractive angle. As a result, we get the power transmittance ( ), reflectance (R = |r|2) and absorbance (A = 1−T−R). The absorbance A is a function of surface conductivity (Re(σs) and Im(σs)). Based on the conditions of the extreme value for two variable functions, the maximum absorbances for TE and TM polarizations are94)
where and is the relative permittivity. In the case of the normal incidence, Eqs. (12) and (13) are the same and equal to
when the imaginary part of conductivity Im(σs) = 0 and the real part Re(σs) = (n1 + n2)/Z0 are satisfied simultaneously. From Eqs. (12) and (13), it is possible to achieve a perfect absorption, when the incident angle is larger than the critical angle (θ1 > asin(n2/n1), n1 > n2), where the transmission wave is suppressed and converted into the evanescent wave absorbed by the graphene. Note that the maximum of absorbance is just a theoretical upper limit which does not contains any clues about how to structure the materials or whether some material is possible to achieve it. For example, there is an upper limit absorbance of 50% (100% for coherent absorption95)) under the normal incidence with the symmetric configuration (i.e. n1 = n2 = 1.0).96,97) However, it is impossible for the continuous graphene with Amax = 50% in terahertz and infrared frequencies because the requirement of the surface conductivity including the real and imaginary parts cannot be satisfied simultaneously.
Alternatively, the structured graphene (ribbons, disks) or graphene/metasurface has more freedom degrees to tailor the surface conductivity, facilitating to realize the theoretical upper limit (Fig. 6(a)).94) The effective surface conductivity can be extracted by the S21 parameters from the numerical calculations
where S21 parameter defined between two ports equals to . However, the theoretical study shows that the structured graphene only reach an absorption maximum in the limited incident angle due to the critical coupling (Fig. 6(b)).98) Besides, the light transferred from the vacuum to medium n1 undergoes a reflection loss in the actual situation that it is not a real perfect absorption.
To obtain the perfect absorption, the structured graphene or the graphene/metasurface on the top of a metallic ground plate separated by a thick dielectric spacer is adopted (Fig. 6(c) and (e)).65,99-101) Based on the modified Fabry-Perot interference, we can get the total reflection coefficient as
where r1 and t1(t2) are the reflection and transmission coefficients from medium n1(n2) to n2(n1) for TE or TM polarization, ϕ = k0n2d/cosθ2 is the phase accumulation upon the propagation through dielectric. Due to the thick metallic plate in the back of dielectrics, there is no transmittance (T = 0). Therefore, the absorbance is a function of the effective surface conductivity and the phase accumulation ϕ. For example, the absorbance under the normal incidence reaches the maximum value when the conditions of and are satisfied simultaneously which can be easily realized by adjusting the thickness of dielectrics (Fig. 6(c)).101) Importantly, the perfect absorber consisted of composite structure realizes an omnidirectional absorption (Fig. 6(d)) compared with the angle sensitive absorption from prism coupling (Fig. 6(b)). By varying the surface conductivity (or doping), the frequency and strength of the perfect absorber can be modulated in real time (Fig. 6(f)).65)
4.3. Electromagnetic applications
Except for the tunable ability of amplitude, the structured graphene is also capable to tune the phase and reshape the wavefront. For example, the graphene tailored into biaxial anisotropic nanoparticles can demonstrate different phase shifts along two principal axis due to the LSPs resonances. As a result, it can be utilized for polarization converter and optical activity.38-40) Besides, the dynamic tunability of the effective surface conductivity by Fermi level further modulates the phase shift and amplitude for applications. For example, the asymmetric graphene nano-crosses (Fig. 7(a)) at Fermi level of 0.75 eV,40) demonstrate two distinct resonances with near 100° phase abrupt under the normally incidence with polarizations along x- and y-directions. At the wavelength of 7.92 μm, the transmission amplitude is equal and the phase difference approaches 90° between the x and y components, indicating a quarter wave plate under the linearly polarized wave with a polarization angle of 45°. Besides, the transmission phase difference is always 0 at 7.85 μm and 7.99 μm, indicating an optical activity. By varying the Fermi level, the structured graphene nano-crosses can realize a transition between a quarter wave plate and optical activity.
In addition, the structured graphene scatters with the desired phase (varying geometric parameters or Fermi levels) can be properly arranged to reshape the wavefront and realize many functionalities in ultrathin devices, such as flat lens, anomalous reflection and refraction. The study shows that the transmission phase almost realizes a full coverage by controlling the Fermi level of the graphene ribbons for a normally incident light polarized perpendicular to the nano-ribbons.41) When two parallel graphene nano-ribbons are chosen as the unit cell, the transmission amplitude keeps uniform despite of the different Fermi levels. Hence, we can reshape the wavefront, i.e. anomalous refraction and lens (Fig. 7(b) and (c)) by arranging the distribution of nanoribbons with required Fermi levels. Besides, the structured graphene can be designed for the reflection modes42,43) (Fig. 7(d) and (e)) or the circular polarized wave based on the Pancharatnam-Berry (P-B) phase44) which is more suitable for broadband operation and multi-functions.
5. Graphene/Metasurfaces
5.1. Graphene/metallic metasurfaces
As mentioned above, the modulation depth of the graphene sheets, including frequency, amplitude and phase, usually exhibits a very limited tuning range due to the fact of a single atomic layer. One way to overcome this problem is using the structured graphene with the LSPs resonances in the THz and infrared frequencies, as mentioned above. Another effective solution is using the hybrid graphene/metallic metasurfaces because the metasurfaces offer an enhanced light-mater interaction from the terahertz to the visible frequencies. The main drawback of the metasurfaces is that they are passive, i.e. the optical properties are fixed after fabrication. Therefore, the hybrid graphene/metasurface follows from their complementarity and demonstrates a more powerful application.
In the terahertz frequencies, the surface conductivity of graphene is mainly derived from the intra-band transitions. The imaginary part of the permittivity dominates the real part, that is, the intrinsic losses caused by the intra-band transitions play an important role in the optical properties of graphene. By varying Fermi level, the surface conductivity of graphene demonstrates a largely tunable range, facilitating to realize a deep amplitude modulation when it is combined with the metallic metasurface of strongly localized in-plane field.47,48,66,101-105) Fig. 8(a) shows the metal gratings with a high duty ratio, where the localized electric fields in the slits are greatly enhanced (Fig. 8(b)) and the frequency is independent under the normal incidence with polarization perpendicular to the gratings.103) The constructive interference between the coherent radiations from the oscillating local fields produces a high transmission. Therefore, the optical response of graphene/metallic gratings possess a broadband and deep modulation capacities (Fig. 8(c)). The change of transmission is mainly derived from the graphene absorption
where S is the graphene area, Einc is the electric field competent of incidence and η = E/Einc is the enhancement factor. From the Eq. (18), a large modulation depth can be obtained by greatly enhanced field despite of a little quality of surface conductivity. Beyond that, metallic resonators can exhibit strongly enhanced local fields for terahertz modulation by controlling the Fermi level of graphene, such as the splitring resonators (SRRs) with electric resonance,105) the sandwich structure with magnetic resonance66) and the asymmetric structures with Fano resonance.47,104)
In the mid-infrared frequencies, the graphene behave as a plasmonic material with a low loss, that is, the real part of the graphene permittivity dominates over the imaginary part. The optical response of the graphene/plasmonic metasurface is mainly reflected in the change of the resonant frequency by varying the Fermi level of graphene.45,65,67,106-111) Fig. 8(d) shows the asymmetric π-shape plasmonic resonators which can exhibit high-sole asymmetric Fano resonances with a strong field enhancement when the incident polarization is parallel to the vertical resonators.109) The Fano resonance is derived from the interference between a narrow resonance (dark mode, quadrupole resonance) and a broad continuum of states (bright mode, dipole resonance), leading to an enhanced transmission and a reduced reflection.112,113) As shown in Fig. 8(e) and (f), the introduction of graphene to the metasurface significantly changes the frequency of Fano resonance, which can be evaluated by the perturbation theory and expressed as75,109)
where is the stored energy of the given mode. In the mid-infrared frequencies, the surface conductivity has a largely tunable range, endowing the broadband modulation of resonant frequency and resulting in a deep modulation of amplitude or phase at a certain frequency which can be used for optical switch, modulator and photonic applications.
In the near-infrared frequencies, the inter-band transitions become the decisive factor and give rise to considerable losses which can be utilized for the amplitude modulation. As shown in Fig. 1(a), the surface conductivity of graphene has a maximum of e2/4ħ and produces a considerable losses of 2.3% at near-infrared frequencies. The limited varying range of the surface conductivity for isolated graphene sheet constrains the modulation depth. Therefore, the metasurfaces which offer a remarkable local field enhancement to the critical coupling with the tunable graphene are proposed. Fig. 8(g) shows a hybrid graphene/gold nano-rod device which can be efficiently controlled by the Fermi level due to the strongly confined the electric field in the vicinity of surface at the LSPs resonance.74) The Rayleigh scattering spectra, demonstrate the efficient electrical modulation of plasmon resonance (6%) at near infrared frequency utilizing the strong and tunable inter-band transitions in graphene (Fig. 8(h) and (i)). The change of amplitude can be obtained by75,114)
where c0 is the speed of light, ɛ0 is the vacuum permittivity, A is the surface area of the unit cell, |Et| = η|Einc| is the tangent electric field in the graphene with an enhancement factor η compared with the incident electric Einc. To further improve the modulation depth in the near infrared frequency, the graphene should interact with high quality factor (Q-factor) resonances, such as the Fano resonances emerged in the asymmetric structures or plasmonic clusters. 46,68) Note that high Q-factor resonance usually accompany with a narrow bandwidth which demands the nearinfrared detector with a high resolution in reverse.
5.2. Graphene/dielectric metasurfaces
In the above content, we mainly focus on the hybrid graphene/metallic metasurfaces. In the near-infrared and optical frequencies, however, the non-radiative losses in metal lead to a low Q-factor resonance and a limited modulation depth.114-116) Alternatively, the dielectric metasurfaces with high refractive index dielectric particles embedded in a low index matrix can support different order electric and magnetic resonances with an extremely low intrinsic losses based on the Mie theory.61-63) For example, the asymmetric structures, such as asymmetric Si-based II-shape and π-shape resonators,117,118) demonstrate a high Q-factor Fano resonances and a strongly localized field enhancement in the gaps, facilitating to the depth modulation by varying the Fermi level (Fig. 9(a)). Similarly, the asymmetric periodity also has the same functions as the asymmetric structure.75) Fig. 9(b) shows an 85% modulation depth for the left-handed passband with 2π phase coverage when the Fermi level is varied from 0 to 0.8 eV. The modulation depth may be further improved by decreasing the asymmetric degree,119) but it also brings a challenge to a high machining precision and a higher Fermi level to realize high transmission, which makes the conventional gating configuration not suitable any more. Up to date, the experimental demonstration of dynamic tunability via graphene/dielectric metasurface has not yet been emerged.
Another solution to realize a broadband or deep modulation is using dielectric waveguide or photonic crystal16,120-124) which supports the guided mode or optical cavity resonance with the electric field confined in vicinity of surface. Fig. 9(c) shows the graphene/dielectric waveguide device which exhibits a large modulation depth of 0.1 dB μm−1 (Fig. 9(d)) and a broadband modulation range from 1.35 μm to 1.6 μm.16) By introducing defects in the photonic crystal,123) as shown in Fig. 9(e), the localized field are greatly enhanced near the region of defects. The hybrid graphene/2D photonic crystal demonstrate a 6 dB modulation for the cavity resonance with 1.5 nm line width in reflectivity, as shown in Fig. 9(f).
In addition to the above mentioned applications of optical modulator or switch, the graphene integrated with nanoparticles with the greatly enhanced local fields are also promising applications for the optical bistability,125,126) super-scattering effect127-129) and enhanced photo-detection.130,131)
6. Conclusions and Outlook
Graphene combines many superior properties from mechanical to electronic, has attracted intensive research interests from different fields. Owning to the high carrier mobility and tunable carrier concentration, graphene opens up an exciting opportunity to high performance applications, such as plasmonics, optoelectronic devices based on graphene plasmons. Different from noble metal plasmons in range of visible frequencies, graphene plasmons operate from terahertz to mid-infrared frequencies and demonstrate an extremely high confinement, facilitating to light-matter interaction for quantum optics, chemical identifications and biosensors. Importantly, the tunable surface conductivity makes graphene a wider application prospect. Graphene integrated with silicon-based optical circuit can dynamically manipulate the amplitude, phase and polarization of light, promising applications for optical communication and optical computing. Besides, graphene can couple with metasurfaces of enhanced local electric field to improve the optical modulation depth.
The behavior of graphene plasmons is tightly associated with the graphene itself. Large-scale grown high quality graphene is desirable in many applications and has been realized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on copper foils and films. However, the following transfer process is usually very complicated and need be optimized to minimize the damage to graphene. Another important challenge is the fabrication of structured graphene with fine control of shape and quality which will significantly influence the graphene plasmons.
Note that except for the graphene, many 2D materials, such as black phosphorus, molybdenum disulfide and topological insulators, also demonstrate the similar or even preferable electrical and optical properties which can be used to explore the tunable collective optical oscillations.


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Supported living: a life not a service
Last week, Learning Disability England held their first conference, focusing on Supported Living. Certitude was a proud sponsor of the conference and I was delighted to be part of the panel debating how to get supported living right now and for the future. I firmly believe that People and Partnerships are what make supported living a life not a service.
By people I am specifically referring to the personal support from support workers, people who are recruited because of their shared interests with the people they are supporting, people who are inspired by people, who are dependable and reliable, who are always looking for ways to improve the quality of opportunity to people they support, people who know we are better working together than apart.
The great opportunity and indeed the greatest challenge is attracting these people into our support networks and organisations. I remember vividly my first job as a support worker – the fire in my belly to be part of making life great, fun and interesting with the young women with profound Learning Disabilities that I was supporting. I remain confident there are lots of people who have the fire in their belly too – many who don't even know the wonderful career they could be having! Our collective opportunity is to show what a great job it is to all ages – to inspire those young people who want to change the world that we want them in our world – that they can make a difference – possibly in ways they or we never even dreamt of.
I am inspired by the wonderful young people in the Brit School, the performing arts school in Croydon where each year they put on a joint performance with people with LD – some are now thinking about careers that they didn't even know existed! I am not disillusioned but I am also not deluded. I know how big our task is – cost of living and wage pressures are challenging especially in London. But we have a better collective offer than we realise and that is our opportunity.
Partnerships are the second key to supported living being a life not a service, a partnership of equals between the person being supported, their family and those providing support, a genuine blending of ideas all focused towards moving forward in life. A partnership that gets things done – that stands firmly alongside the person to fight for their right to a life, the right to housing, the right to funding. A partnership that is under no illusion with regards to its priority. A partnership that is based on honesty and openness that works together to overcome challenges that may sometimes feel insurmountable, that sticks with each other through thick and thin. This is the kind of supported living we seek to offer in Certitude.
Sam* is someone we support who loves water, washing machines and is a great gardener – especially mowing lawns using impressive lawn mowers! He also has a learning disability, autism and a long standing challenging behaviour label. When we met Sam he lived in supported living – in his own place with his own team. Tick tick supported living. Sam rarely went out, he didn't know his neighbourhood, his team was an all male one and largely geared towards keeping everyone safe. Sam now lives in a house with one other man – the house designed specifically for them both – his own garden which he looks after with great care, a washing machine which when I popped by recently Sam and 2 of his team were lying on the floor next to watching the world and the whirr go round! Sam is a familiar person in his local community – the local cafe knows his favourites. I told you Sam loves water – this included deciding to take an unplanned dip in the lake at the local park. So what do you do? Well, his two support workers got in too! What previously may have led to police being called, a frightened Sam, restraint – you know how it goes – instead led to a fun afternoon that is now one of the many great stories that make up Sam's interesting life. My point is both of Sam's housing experiences were supported living but only one is a life.
Delivering better outcomes through collaborative working
For the past 18 months, Certitude has been part of Lambeth's Integrated Personalised Support Alliance (IPSA) providing support to enable people with long term mental health issues to live more independently within the community.
Together with Thames Reach, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Lambeth Council, we have been working to deliver on three outcomes that were identified by people as most important to them:
1. I want to recover and stay well
2. I want to make my own choices
3. I want to participate on an equal footing in daily life.
IPSA's One Year report explains the original objectives for the alliance, our progress against them and some learning to date. Some of the key headlines include:
• A 60% reduction in admission rates to inpatient rehabilitation wards in Lambeth
• A 67% reduction rate in people going into residential care and an increase in 30% of people leaving residential care
• On course to deliver circa 20% saving by end of year 2
As Chair of the Alliance Leadership Team, I have been struck by some of the key principles that have driven the success of the Alliance to date:
• The work of the alliance has undoubtedly been driven by a shared core belief that integrated and personalised support delivers better outcomes at a lower cost.
• This belief has in turn driven the desire to invest in and strengthen relationships. Everyone brings different skills and assets – the strength comes as these are blended together. This has resulted in a new found respect between staff, clinicians, peers, individuals and families.
• Sticking with and not giving up on people has involved working together to share risk and is enabling new positive narratives about people using our support.
• Thinking differently, being innovative and using resources creatively including assistive technology has been essential to achieving outcomes.
Over the past year, I have seen people's lives change for the better as they start to make their own choices; to participate equally and to recover and feel well. I have seen leaders emerge throughout, supported by the commitment of senior leaders from each alliance partner.
It is a privilege chairing the Alliance Leadership Team where senior managers come together with the common purpose to get the best outcomes for people. We have more to do and the challenges are great but together we can lead change, find solutions and improve lives.
Aisling Duffy
Chief Executive
Keep London Connected
Certitude's campaign Keep London Connected shines a light on a very real issue for many people – loneliness. Despite 8.6m people living in the capital, London can feel a very lonely place. Somehow the hustle and bustle makes the loneliness more poignant. When I first arrived in London I experienced this for myself. I can still remember that feeling. Finding a job (supporting people with learning disabilities) and with it the opportunity to meet new people and make friends helped me to establish some roots and develop a sense of belonging. Some 25 years later I feel very fortunate to call London home.
Living in London can be magic but the challenges are immense. Many people I meet through my work moved to London from other parts of the country or the world. Leaving behind family, loved ones and long standing connections – the very things that contribute to our sense of safety and belonging. I hear from people with learning disabilities and mental health needs that living in the capital can be lonely and at times scary – hate-crime, mate-crime, loneliness and isolation featuring too often in too many people's lives. The Marmot Review into health inequalities found that individuals who are socially isolated are up to five times more likely to die prematurely than those with strong social ties.
Keep London Connected is Certitude's commitment to harnessing the talents and creativity of people to connect with and support each other. We are creating opportunities, encouraging and liberating people to share their interests and talents with others. For instance, the opportunity to meet to play a game of five a side, to debate the merits of a recent film, to share a love of cooking and eating! Certitude Community Connectors bring their passion for change to the fore and get to know what people like doing connecting them with others with similar interests. With some digital support thrown into the mix through Connect and Do, www.connectanddo.org even more tailored connecting opportunities can be found. Over time as an individuals' confidence and self esteem grow the role of the Community Connector changes as friendships and mutual support get established. Each experience extends the network of the Community Connector too who can bring those new connections to even more people. And so, building human capital, rather like that analogy of a pebble in a pond – just watch those ripples.
Whilst loneliness and isolation are real and serious problems, the confidence gained by having friends around us and the building of strong relationships with important people in our lives can help us all be happier and healthier. So together lets Keep London Connected.
A very big thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign to date – jumping out of aeroplanes, cycling vast miles, running through mud, tweeting, donating or connecting with someone new. Your support means so much.
You can donate to the campaign by clicking on this link.
Aisling Duffy
Chief Executive
Aisling tweets @AislingDuffy_
Trading Places
Certitude's CEO, Aisling Duffy and Director of Mental Health, Nicholas Campbell-Watts recently had the opportunity to don some chef whites and work alongside the kitchen staff at Abbevilles restaurant in Clapham.
Abbevilles is a social enterprise run by First Step Trust [FST], which aims to support people with learning disabilities and/or mental health support needs to get back into paid employment. FST's other businesses include SMaRT Garage Services in Woolwich, West Norwood and Salford.
The Trading Places initiative has attracted senior staff from a wide range of industry, housing and local government to work alongside trainees and staff in the kitchen or garages. Aisling and Nicholas both found the experience incredibly valuable.
Aisling said "I really enjoyed my time taking part in Trading Places at Abbevilles I was hugely impressed by everyone working in the kitchen, a really supportive environment where everyone has an important role in producing and serving the most amazing food. Although not usually known for my culinary skills, we made the best cheese biscuits ever!"
"Initiatives like this highlight, in a simple yet powerful way, that when the right conditions are created people who may be considered far from employment can flourish and contribute, including in fast-paced industries. People with learning disabilities or mental health needs have the right to work and organisations such as FST and Certitude will continue to collaborate so more people can gain the skills, confidence and self-esteem that come with having a job."
Certitude works in partnership with FST as part of the Lambeth Collaborative, increasing employment opportunities for people with mental health support needs and/or learning disabilities.
You can find out more about the Abbevilles Restaurant here and the garage services here via the FST's website.
A few reflections…
As we approach the last few months of Certitude's current 3 year strategy, it seems appropriate to reflect on what has, without doubt, been a busy, challenging and successful few years.
Times of ongoing austerity are no doubt tough and, as another Spending Review looms, I wanted to take some time to reflect and share my thoughts on some of the approaches that have helped over the past few years; indeed, these are approaches we can draw on going forward.
Small investments can have a great impact
When developing our strategy, people told us that they wanted more things to do with people not "paid to be there" – more friendships, stronger community connections, and so on. Harnessing the assets and talents of people in Certitude and providing a small amount of cash led to the creation of community choirs, regular Cut a Rug club nights and acoustic evenings for those who can't or won't dance! They all have one thing in common: bringing people from all walks of life and parts of the local community together to share talents, provide mutual support and have fun. Finding out what's in in your area and asking for a helping hand to try things out is made all the more possible by Connect & Do and our band of community connectors. London has a tremendous amount to offer and, with permission to try, a little bit of cash and a driven belief towards inclusion, people can make great things happen!
Invest in Learning and Development
When times are tight, it can feel counter-intuitive to spend more on learning and development with staff members. However, used the right way, it is I believe a critical success factor! Leading at Certitude, our bespoke leadership development programme for every manager, recognises that, to deliver an ambitious strategy, we require great leaders everywhere in our organisation. Using a combination of Myers Briggs, 360 feedback and specialist support from our in-house leadership coach, we are now engaging in more open and honest conversations across Certitude. Our focus on the strengths and assets of our staff, giving and receiving feedback, and coaching is helping everyone to improve not only their own performance but that of colleagues, too. It came as no surprise to me that CQC reported in its State of Care review that strong leadership is more crucial than ever to delivering good care. I also believe that the 70% response rate of colleagues to our recent Staff Engagement Survey, administered by Agenda Consulting, where colleagues told us they feel more engaged than ever is down to collectively improved leadership.
Increased partnership and collaboration
At times of austerity, the natural tendency can be to button down the hatches, cut back on partnering, keep a steady ship and hope for the best! While for some organisations that may be the necessary action, I believe we need more, not less collaboration. Effective alliances can lead to innovative solutions, shared risk taking and better outcomes for people supported. Our experience of partnerships, with the likes of the BRIT School, Tate and Slaughterhaus have led to a range of collaborative creative ventures. Collaboration with statutory and charity partners in the Lambeth Integrated Personalised Support Alliance has resulted in less use of residential and hospital care and more community and personalised support for people with serious mental illness. Collaboration requires openness to understanding each other's differences, finding common ground and a shared drive and accountability to deliver change. It's about recognising that the challenges many of the people we support experience are complex and that no single organisation has the answer. Alignment with our vision and values is, without doubt, the most important factor when developing the partnerships and collaborations that are right for Certitude.
So, these are my top three. What do you think? Do these resonate with you? What are your top 3?
As we move into our next strategic period, I have no doubt these three approaches will continue to play a significant role. And, so, my glass remains more than half full, no matter what the spending review may hold.
I want to end by saying a heartfelt thank you to all of you for your continued support to Certitude, for partnering with us and helping us to be the best we can possibly be.
Best wishes,
Aisling Duffy
Where's the Rolls Royce? Staff experience what it is like to be CEO for the Day
Certitude CEO Aisling Duffy explains the thinking behind Certitude's 'Being CEO for a day' competition and shares her experience of the day:
As an organisation, we are really keen that our staff are fully engaged and play an active role in the development of our thinking and planning going forward. As part of our business strategy, we are committed to inspiring and recognising staff, helping to support the development of self awareness, skills and experience across the variety of teams in Certitude.
We had a lot of discussion internally about different ways we could support this, and one of these was the idea of a 'Being CEO for the day' competition, where staff could step in my shoes for a day and get to know what it is really like to lead Certitude. There are often misconceptions about the role of a CEO – people can sometimes think it's a very glamorous or grandiose job –Mary, who was one of the winners of the competition, joked that she was surprised there was no Rolls Royce in the car park!
I've always made a point of being involved at every level of the organisation, because I feel it is so beneficial, particularly for people working in dispersed services who can sometimes feel distanced from the leadership of an organisation. I know how valuable it can be when people can see for themselves that the CEO understands and is actively championing something which has been an issue for them.
It has been a really interesting day for me and I hope also for Mary and Dada. I have enjoyed hearing their experiences of working for Certitude, appreciating some of the issues of where they work, and some of the things we are eager to do better. It was particularly great to get their valuable input at the Technology Programme Board meeting held on the day. It was also extremely reassuring to hear directly from them that the projects we are taking forward are ones that really matter for staff teams that they work with and people they support.
As the winners learnt directly today, I'm just an ordinary person like them who has had the benefit of some experience and opportunities in supporting people and staff over many years which I am so fortunate to bring to bear in my role at Certitude. We are committed to ensuring more and more staff benefit from initiatives such as this to broaden and diversify their skills and experiences, and so we can get to know and appreciate more of the many talented people who work for Certitude.
The time is always ripe to do right
It is that time of year!
As the calendar year comes to a close and we reflect on time passed, experiences felt and lessons learned we can begin to think about our goals and plans for the year ahead. I am personally taking inspiration from the life and words of the wonderful Nelson Mandela as I look forward both personally and professionally. Much has been written about his life and the many insightful, humane and educational comments made by this courageous man over many years of South Africa's struggle to freedom. My favourite words are these simple few which offer very wise and sound counsel to us all.
We must use time wisely and forever realise the time is always ripe to do right.
As we approach the end of year and start to think about our future plans I am lifted by the power of these simple words. I find the inspiration in the sentiment encouraging and reassuring – I love the urgency and promise they promote. From the human rights struggle in South Africa to the challenges faced by people with learning disabilities or mental health needs these words offer us hope and encouragement.
Everyday in social care organisations, such as Certitude, people are supporting people to overcome barriers, to flourish, to contribute and lead the life they want to lead. Great support is about recognising the skills, strengths and talents of the people we come into contact with and doing our bit – today, right now – to support them to flourish.
I want to pay tribute to all those people – staff and volunteers – who are offering their time, affection and support to others over this festive period. It is the quiet realisation of the many remarkable staff and volunteers that doing right is simply what they do, that probably inspires me most.
I want to end by wishing everyone who has supported Certitude over the past year a wonderful festive time – we are better because of the experiences we have had. Our endeavours to do right will continue unabated in 2014 and your continued support will be warmly appreciated.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Aisling Duffy
Chief Executive
Appreciating Excellence
This is what we are about
Our third Michael Rosen Award Ceremony took place on Thursday 21 November at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster. The event was a fantastic success and I was incredibly proud of everyone there, and especially our three winners. The two individuals and one team demonstrated the kind of passion, commitment and creativity which embodies our approach as an organisation. I want to say to everyone: "look at these people – this is what Certitude is all about!"
I like the fact that the winners are nominated by a broad range of people. It means that the nominations offer a very clear picture of how we are perceived by the important people all around us. We received 65 nominations during the year under our three categories and it is pleasing to think that so many staff are highly regarded and appreciated. Our eventual winners were chosen by a judging panel consisting of Board members, Sheila Rosen – Michael's wife – and myself and we were bowled over by the nomination stories and had a really tough decision choosing the final winners.
Touching peoples' lives
Many of the nominations – and certainly those of the winners – complimented teams and individuals on their willingness to go beyond the call of duty. In a lot of cases they also shared another quality; something which is hard to put your finger on – a combination of intuition, generosity of spirit and just being really good with people.
Lewis Wallis, our overall winner from the Shared Lives team, has been nominated every year since the awards began three years ago. He has received nominations from colleagues, managers and random members of the public who have encountered him out and about in the community. He was recognised for his "persistent excellence and the willingness he brings to his job" and for his "generosity of time and dedication to ensuring the highest quality of support for all of the people we support in Certitude". The joyful reaction in the room when his name was announced showed that Lewis is an individual who has touched many peoples' lives.
Our two excellent runners up were Isha Oomerjee and the Solidarity in a Crisis team.
Supporting families as well as individuals
Isha was particularly praised for her use of intensive interaction to support Aileen, who has profound and multiple learning disabilities. Isha was also able to help Aileen's sister Sheila Kearney establish a new loving and meaningful relationship with Aileen. I was pleased that Sheila could come to the awards ceremony and particularly delighted when she took the microphone to praise Isha. We know that increasing the relationship circles of the people we support can be incredibly important so it was good to hear such a positive story.
Inspiring teamwork
Solidarity in a Crisis is a team of people with lived experience of mental health support needs who provide out-of hours support for people experiencing a mental health crisis.
They make themselves available to people when most of us have logged off for the weekend and gone home. They were praised not only for going the extra mile for the people they support, but also working effectively as a team. Their manager described them as "truly inspirational".
I would also like to mention the Certitude Community Choir which provided some amazing entertainment on the night. The choir is made up of people we support – and people we don't – and their joyful singing was a wonderful way to complete the proceedings.
Aisling Duffy, Chief Executive
Learning Disability Awareness Week – We are Family!
I am unashamedly borrowing this title from a great song and personal favourite by Sister Sledge! It goes someway to succinctly capture the needed focus on family during this Learning Disability Awareness week. Over the many years I have worked with people with learning disabilities I can bring to mind many examples of families working together – often against the odds – to support their loved one to get the right support to live their life. These are stories of resilience, hope, exhaustion and love but also, too often, they are stories of loneliness and despair. Families worn out by what feels like a relentless fight to simply be heard and to get the support needed for them and their family member with a learning disability.
Too often adult social care has focussed on the needs of the person with the learning disability, sometimes to the exclusion of anyone else. But people don't exist in silos; they have a rich history and set of family relationships that are part of defining who they are. Here at Certitude we have learned that it is not enough to focus on the person with the learning disability. Our support teams appreciate and engage with each individual's family in a way that respects their personal history. Of course this process is not always easy, straight forward or predictable. Every family, my own included, has their own particular dynamics; we have to appreciate that families love each other in different ways – ways which are not always easily recognisable to others. I am concerned that time and again only lip-service is awarded to these relationships for adults with learning disabilities.
Some of the ways that Certitude is seeking to address this include:
• Specifically recruiting people with lived experience, including family members of people with learning disabilities, in our workforce.
• Using person centred planning tools like Family Plans to understand the family story; what is important to them, who's who in the family and so on.
• Creating family One Page Profiles to help us understand what is important to and for family members in supporting their relative. These are used and known by all staff involved in support.
• Developing decision making agreements – to establish who takes which decisions between the individual the family and the staff team.
These tools are a great help to teams in developing relationships with people they support and the person's family. But as we all know tools alone will not achieve this focus on family – we must all, commissioners and providers alike, develop and nurture holistic support that respects the joy, trials and tribulations that being part of a family entails.
Aisling's blog has been reproduced in Learning Disability Today
The Meaning of Words
I was struck when reading a recent article by @Ermintrude2 Twitter extraordinaire summarising the Cavendish Review and the reference she makes to some of the inappropriate language we use in health and social care. I couldn't agree more and felt the need to get some of my thoughts on this subject down on paper to share with you.
It is quite ironic that at a time when everyone is jumping on the compassion bandwagon that the language of the battlefield remains so prevalent. Staff providing intimate and personalised support still frequently referred to as working at the 'front line'. People with disabilities as living in 'units'.
It strikes me that those of us who work in the sector and who are passionate about individual rights and personalised support have a duty to re-write the narrative. It is outdated, dehumanising language that fails to reflect the compassionate and sensitive support social and health care staff provide.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia:
Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield.
What a message to send the many wonderful staff providing such an important and sensitive role about the people they work with – are we indirectly implying they are going into battle with them? I know the argument that 'front line' reflects the importance of the staff who fall into this category – we couldn't do it with out them – just like soldiers are the most important factor in winning a war…Oh dear that doesn't really quite work does it? Unless of course one really is of the view that we are at war…and I really don't believe that for a second. In a similar vein, when asked where you live? – have you ever replied in a unit on the Fulham Road? I suggest not.
I think what this describes more than anything is complacency – most of us when challenged would say of course we don't mean it like that!! When I said 'Jo, a front line support worker helps Harriet who lives in a unit for people with learning disabilities' what I really meant was 'Jo provides personalised support to Harriet in her own home'. So let's end the complacency on this – let's challenge our own narratives and describe people in the way in which we think of them as valued individuals. In essence if we are serious about respecting our committed, compassionate and person centred individuals and teams then the way we describe their work must reflect that value.