Abstract
This paper presents the examination of a planar waveguide sensor featuring a bimetallic layer, revealing its potential applicability across both the visible and infrared spectrums. The bimetallic layer consists of adjacent gold and silver slabs positioned atop the waveguide's core. This arrangement demonstrates the activation of two distinct plasmon resonances, indicating promising prospects for multiparameter sensing applications.

Abstract
Optical tweezers are an interesting tool to enable single cell analysis, especially when coupled with optical sensing and advanced computational methods. Nevertheless, such approaches are still hindered by system operation variability, and reduced amount of data, resulting in performance degradation when addressing new data sets. In this manuscript, we describe the deployment of an automatic and intelligent optical tweezers setup, capable of trapping, manipulating, and analyzing the physical properties of individual microscopic particles in an automatic and autonomous manner, at a rate of 4 particle per min, without user intervention. Reproducibility of particle identification with the help of machine learning algorithms is tested both for manual and automatic operation. The forward scattered signal of the trapped PMMA and PS particles was acquired over two days and used to train and test models based on the random forest classifier. With manual operation the system could initially distinguish between PMMA and PS with 90% accuracy. However, when using test datasets acquired on a different day it suffered a loss of accuracy around 24%. On the other hand, the automatic system could classify four types of particles with 79% accuracy maintaining performance (around 1% variation) even when tested with different datasets. Overall, the automated system shows an increased reproducibility and stability of the acquired signals allowing for the confirmation of the proportionality relationship expected between the particle size and its friction coefficient. These results demonstrate that this approach may support the development of future systems with increased throughput and reliability, for biosciences applications.

Abstract
Multimodal spectral imaging offers a unique approach to the enhancement of the analytical capabilities of standalone spectroscopy techniques by combining information gathered from distinct sources. In this manuscript, we explore such opportunities by focusing on two well-known spectral imaging techniques, namely laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging, and explore the opportunities of collaborative sensing for a case study involving mineral identification. In specific, the work builds upon two distinct approaches: a traditional sensor fusion, where we strive to increase the information gathered by including information from the two modalities; and a knowledge distillation approach, where the Laser Induced Breakdown spectroscopy is used as an autonomous supervisor for hyperspectral imaging. Our results show the potential of both approaches in enhancing the performance over a single modality sensing system, highlighting, in particular, the advantages of the knowledge distillation framework in maximizing the potential benefits of using multiple techniques to build more interpretable models and paving for industrial applications.

Abstract
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) imaging has now a well-established position in the subject of spectral imaging, leveraging multi-element detection capabilities and fast acquisition rates to support applications both at academic and technological levels. In current applications, the standard processing pipeline to explore LIBS imaging data sets revolves around identifying an element that is suspected to exist within the sample and generating maps based on its characteristic emission lines. Such an approach requires some previous expert knowledge both on the technique and on the sample side, which hinders a wider and more transparent accessibility of the LIBS imaging technique by non-specialists. To address this issue, techniques based on visual analysis or peak finding algorithms are applied on the average or maximum spectrum, and may be employed for automatically identifying relevant spectral regions. Yet, maps containing relevant information may often be discarded due to low signal-to-noise ratios or interference with other elements. In this context, this work presents an agnostic processing pipeline based on a spatial information ratio metric that is computed in the Fourier space for each wavelength and that allows for the identification of relevant spectral ranges in LIBS. The results suggest a more robust and streamlined approach to feature extraction in LIBS imaging compared with traditional inspection of the spectra, which can introduce novel opportunities not only for spectral data analysis but also in the field of data compression.

Abstract
As lithium-bearing minerals become critical raw materials for the field of energy storage and advanced technologies, the development of tools to accurately identify and differentiate these minerals is becoming essential for efficient resource exploration, mining, and processing. Conventional methods for identifying ore minerals often depend on the subjective observation skills of experts, which can lead to errors, or on expensive and time-consuming techniques such as Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) or Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICPOES). More recently, Raman Spectroscopy (RS) has emerged as a powerful tool for characterizing and identifying minerals due to its ability to provide detailed molecular information. This technique excels in scenarios where minerals have similar elemental content, such as petalite and spodumene, by offering distinct vibrational information that allows for clear differentiation between such minerals. Considering this case study and its particular relevance to the lithium- mining industry, this manuscript reports the development of an unsupervised methodology for lithium-mineral identification based on Raman Imaging. The deployed machine-learning solution provides accurate and interpretable results using the specific bands expected for each mineral. Furthermore, its robustness is tested with additional blind samples, providing insights into the unique spectral signatures and analytical features that enable reliable mineral identification.

Abstract
Sensing at the single cell level can provide insights into its dynamics and heterogeneity, yielding information otherwise unattainable with traditional biological methods where average population behavior is observed. In this context, optical tweezers provide the ability to select, separate, manipulate and identify single cells or other types of microparticles, potentially enabling single cell diagnostics. Forward or backscatter analysis of the light interacting with the trapped cells can provide valuable insights on the cell optical, geometrical and mechanical properties. In particular, the combination of tweezers systems with advanced machine learning algorithms can enable single cell identification capabilities. However, typical processing pipelines require a training stage which often struggles when trying to generalize to new sets of data. In this context, fully automated tweezers system can provide mechanisms to obtain much larger datasets with minimum effort form the users, while eliminating procedural variability. In this work, a pipeline for full automation of optical tweezers systems is discussed. A performance comparison between manually operated and fully automated tweezers systems is presented, clearly showing advantages of the latter. A case study demonstrating the ability of the system to discriminate molecular binding events on microparticles is presented.