Plasmonic Metasurface "Bullets" and other "Moving Objects": Spatiotemporal Dispersion Cancellation for Linear Passive Subwavelength Slow Light.

A class of plasmonic metasurfaces is introduced with the ability to tailor the dispersion surface of the associated plasmon-polariton into striking novel shapes. Examples include dispersion surfaces with hyperbolic curves, with multiple van Hove singularities of various types or with points of simultaneous spatiotemporal dispersion cancellation leading to unprecedented surface flatness. The latter effect, unseen before in linear passive systems, implies slow propagation of ultrasubwavelength wave packets of any shape devoid of longitudinal or lateral broadening, limited only by absorption.

Transparent and 'opaque' conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells.

Transparent conducting electrodes play a fundamental role in far-field PhotoVoltaic systems, but have never been thoroughly investigated for near-field applications. Here we show, in the context of near-field planar ultra-thin ThermoPhotoVoltaic cells using surface-plasmon-polariton thermal emitters, that the resonant nature of the nanophotonic system significantly alters the design criteria for the necessary conducting front electrode. The traditional ratio of optical-to-DC conductivities is alone not an adequate figure of merit, instead the desired impedance matching between the emitter and absorber modes along with their coupling to the free-carrier resonance of the front electrode are key for optimal device design and performance. Moreover, we demonstrate that conducting electrodes 'opaque' to incoming far-field radiation can, in fact, be used in the near field with decent performance by taking advantage of evanescent photon tunneling from the emitter to the absorber. Finally, we identify and compare appropriate tunable-by-doping materials for front electrodes in near-field ThermoPhotoVoltaics, specifically molybdenum-doped indium oxide, dysprosium-doped cadmium oxide, graphene and diffused semiconductors, but also for 'opaque' electrodes, tin-doped indium oxide and silver nano-films. Predicted estimated performances include output power density ~10 W/cm 2 with >45% efficiency at 2100 °K emitter temperature and 60 Ω electrode square resistance, thus increasing the promise for high-performance practical devices.

Efficient, designable, and broad-bandwidth optical extinction via aspect-ratio-tailored silver nanodisks.

Subwavelength resonators, ranging from single atoms to metallic nanoparticles, typically exhibit a narrow-bandwidth response to optical excitations. We computationally design and experimentally synthesize tailored distributions of silver nanodisks to extinguish light over broad and varied frequency windows. We show that metallic nanodisks are 2-10x more efficient in absorbing and scattering light than common structures, and can approach fundamental limits to broadband scattering for subwavelength particles. We measure broadband extinction per volume that closely approaches theoretical predictions over three representative visible-range wavelength windows, confirming the high efficiency of nanodisks and demonstrating the collective power of computational design and experimental precision for developing new photonics technologies.

'Squeezing' near-field thermal emission for ultra-efficient high-power thermophotovoltaic conversion.

We numerically demonstrate near-field planar ThermoPhotoVoltaic systems with very high efficiency and output power, at large vacuum gaps. Example performances include: at 1200 °K emitter temperature, output power density 2 W/cm(2) with ~47% efficiency at 300 nm vacuum gap; at 2100 °K, 24 W/cm(2) with ~57% efficiency at 200 nm gap; and, at 3000 °K, 115 W/cm(2) with ~61% efficiency at 140 nm gap. Key to this striking performance is a novel photonic design forcing the emitter and cell single modes to cros resonantly couple and impedance-match just above the semiconductor bandgap, creating there a 'squeezed' narrowband near-field emission spectrum. Specifically, we employ surface-plasmon-polariton thermal emitters and silver-backed semiconductor-thin-film photovoltaic cells. The emitter planar plasmonic nature allows for high-power and stable high-temperature operation. Our simulations include modeling of free-carrier absorption in both cell electrodes and temperature dependence of the emitter properties. At high temperatures, the efficiency enhancement via resonant mode cross-coupling and matching can be extended to even higher power, by appropriately patterning the silver back electrode to enforce also an absorber effective surface-plasmon-polariton mode. Our proposed designs can therefore lead the way for mass-producible and low-cost ThermoPhotoVoltaic micro-generators and solar cells.

Fundamental limits to extinction by metallic nanoparticles.

We show that there are shape-independent upper bounds to the extinction cross section per unit volume of dilute, randomly arranged nanoparticles, given only material permittivity. Underlying the limits are restrictive sum rules that constrain the distribution of quasistatic eigenvalues. Surprisingly, optimally designed spheroids, with only a single quasistatic degree of freedom, reach the upper bounds for four permittivity values. Away from these permittivities, we demonstrate computationally optimized structures that surpass spheroids and approach the fundamental limits.

Robust optimization of adiabatic tapers for coupling to slow-light photonic-crystal waveguides.

We investigate the design of taper structures for coupling to slow-light modes of various photonic-crystal waveguides while taking into account parameter uncertainties inherent in practical fabrication. Our short-length (11 periods) robust tapers designed for ? = 1.55?m and a slow-light group velocity of c/34 have a total loss of < 20 dB even in the presence of nanometer-scale surface roughness, which outperform the corresponding non-robust designs by an order of magnitude. We discover a posteriori that the robust designs have smooth profiles that can be parameterized by a few-term (intrinsically smooth) sine series which helps the optimization to further boost the performance slightly. We ground these numerical results in an analytical foundation by deriving the scaling relationships between taper length, taper smoothness, and group velocity with the help of an exact equivalence with Fourier analysis.

Blast-induced electromagnetic fields in the brain from bone piezoelectricity.

In this paper, we show that bone piezoelectricity-a phenomenon in which bone polarizes electrically in response to an applied mechanical stress and produces a short-range electric field-may be a source of intense blast-induced electric fields in the brain, with magnitudes and timescales comparable to fields with known neurological effects. We compute the induced charge density in the skull from stress data on the skull from a finite-element full-head model simulation of a typical IED-scale blast wave incident on an unhelmeted human head as well as a human head protected by a kevlar helmet, and estimate the resulting electric fields in the brain in both cases to be on the order of 10 V/m in millisecond pulses. These fields are more than 10 times stronger than the IEEE safety guidelines for controlled environments (IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 28, 2002) and comparable in strength and timescale to fields from repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) that are designed to induce neurological effects (Wagner et al., 2006a). They can be easily measured by RF antennas, and may provide the means to design a diagnostic tool that records a quantitative measure of the head's exposure to blast insult.

Delay-bandwidth and delay-loss limitations for cloaking of large objects.

We show that the difficulty of cloaking is fundamentally limited by delay-loss and delay-bandwidth limitations that worsen as the size of the object to be cloaked increases relative to the wavelength, using a simple model of ground-plane cloaking. These limitations must be considered when scaling experimental cloaking demonstrations up from wavelength-scale objects.

Multimaterial piezoelectric fibres.

Fibre materials span a broad range of applications ranging from simple textile yarns to complex modern fibre-optic communication systems. Throughout their history, a key premise has remained essentially unchanged: fibres are static devices, incapable of controllably changing their properties over a wide range of frequencies. A number of approaches to realizing time-dependent variations in fibres have emerged, including refractive index modulation, nonlinear optical mechanisms in silica glass fibres and electroactively modulated polymer fibres. These approaches have been limited primarily because of the inert nature of traditional glassy fibre materials. Here we report the composition of a phase internal to a composite fibre structure that is simultaneously crystalline and non-centrosymmetric. A ferroelectric polymer layer of 30 mum thickness is spatially confined and electrically contacted by internal viscous electrodes and encapsulated in an insulating polymer cladding hundreds of micrometres in diameter. The structure is thermally drawn in its entirety from a macroscopic preform, yielding tens of metres of piezoelectric fibre. The fibres show a piezoelectric response and acoustic transduction from kilohertz to megahertz frequencies. A single-fibre electrically driven device containing a high-quality-factor Fabry-Perot optical resonator and a piezoelectric transducer is fabricated and measured.

Nontouching nanoparticle diclusters bound by repulsive and attractive Casimir forces.

We present a scheme for obtaining stable Casimir suspension of dielectric nontouching objects immersed in a fluid, validated here in various geometries consisting of ethanol-separated dielectric spheres and semi-infinite slabs. Stability is induced by the dispersion properties of real dielectric (monolithic) materials. A consequence of this effect is the possibility of stable configurations (clusters) of compact objects, which we illustrate via a molecular two-sphere dicluster geometry consisting of two bound spheres levitated above a gold slab. Our calculations also reveal a strong interplay between material and geometric dispersion, and this is exemplified by the qualitatively different stability behavior observed in planar versus spherical geometries.

Dimer shape anisotropy: a nonspherical colloidal approach to omnidirectonal photonic band gaps.

Theoretical calculations of the photonic band gap forming properties are reported for a class of colloidal dimer-based structures with similarity to zinc blende and which map onto diamond or opalline face-centered cubic structures at the extrema in shape parameters. Inspired by the range of nonspherical building blocks for self-assembly synthesized using seeded emulsion polymerization and sol-gel techniques, we explore in particular the band structures as a function of dimer lobe symmetry and the degree of lobe interpenetration for tangent dimers. Complete photonic band gaps were observed between the second and third, fifth and sixth, or eighth and ninth bands for various shape classes. As well, select inverted and direct dimer-based structures showed two complete band gaps simultaneously.

Observation of unidirectional backscattering-immune topological electromagnetic states.

One of the most striking phenomena in condensed-matter physics is the quantum Hall effect, which arises in two-dimensional electron systems subject to a large magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane in which the electrons reside. In such circumstances, current is carried by electrons along the edges of the system, in so-called chiral edge states (CESs). These are states that, as a consequence of nontrivial topological properties of the bulk electronic band structure, have a unique directionality and are robust against scattering from disorder. Recently, it was theoretically predicted that electromagnetic analogues of such electronic edge states could be observed in photonic crystals, which are materials having refractive-index variations with a periodicity comparable to the wavelength of the light passing through them. Here we report the experimental realization and observation of such electromagnetic CESs in a magneto-optical photonic crystal fabricated in the microwave regime. We demonstrate that, like their electronic counterparts, electromagnetic CESs can travel in only one direction and are very robust against scattering from disorder; we find that even large metallic scatterers placed in the path of the propagating edge modes do not induce reflections. These modes may enable the production of new classes of electromagnetic device and experiments that would be impossible using conventional reciprocal photonic states alone. Furthermore, our experimental demonstration and study of photonic CESs provides strong support for the generalization and application of topological band theories to classical and bosonic systems, and may lead to the realization and observation of topological phenomena in a generally much more controlled and customizable fashion than is typically possible with electronic systems.

Plasmonic-dielectric systems for high-order dispersionless slow or stopped subwavelength light.

A material platform of multilayered surface-plasmon-dielectric-polariton systems is introduced, along with a new physical mechanism enabling simultaneous cancellation of group-velocity and attenuation dispersion to extremely high orders for subwavelength light of any small positive, negative, or zero group velocity. These dispersion-free systems could have significant impact on the development of nanophotonics, e.g., in the design of efficient and very compact delay lines and active devices. The same dispersion-manipulation mechanism can be employed to tailor at will exotic slow-light dispersion relations.

Zero-group-velocity modes in chalcogenide holey photonic-crystal fibers.

We demonstrate that a holey photonic-crystal fiber with chalcogenide-glass index contrast can be designed to have a complete gap at a propagation constant beta = 0 that also extends into the non-zero beta region. This type of bandgap (previously identified only at index contrasts unattainable in glasses) opens up a regime for guiding zero-group-velocity modes not possible in holey fibers with the more common finger-like gaps originating from beta-->infinity. Such modes could be used to enhance nonlinear and other material interactions, such as for hollow-core fibers in gas-sensor applications.

Broadband super-collimation in a hybrid photonic crystal structure.

We propose a two dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PhC) structure that supports super-collimation over a large frequency range (over 4 times that of a traditional square lattice of holes). We theoretically and numerically investigate the collimation mechanism in our 2D structure, in comparison to that of two other frequently used related PhC structures. We also point out the potential importance of our proposed structure in the design of super-collimation-based devices for both monochromatic and polychromatic light.

Stable suspension and dispersion-induced transitions from repulsive Casimir forces between fluid-separated eccentric cylinders.

We numerically demonstrate a stable mechanical suspension of a silica cylinder within a metallic cylinder separated by ethanol, via a repulsive Casimir force between the silica and the metal. We investigate cylinders with both circular and square cross sections, and show that the latter exhibit a stable orientation as well as a stable position, via a method to compute Casimir torques for finite objects. Furthermore, the stable orientation of the square cylinder undergoes a 45 degrees transition as the separation length scale is varied, which is explained as a consequence of material dispersion.

Purcell effect in nonlinear photonic structures: a coupled mode theory analysis.

We develop a coupled mode theory (CMT) model of the behavior of a polarization source in a general photonic structure, and obtain an analytical expression for the resulting generated electric field; loss, gain and/or nonlinearities can also be modeled. Based on this treatment, we investigate the criteria needed to achieve an enhancement in various nonlinear effects, and to produce efficient sources of terahertz radiation, in particular. Our results agree well with exact finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) results. Therefore, this approach can also in certain circumstances be used as a potential substitute for the more numerically intensive FDTD method.

In-fiber semiconductor filament arrays.

We report a novel physical phenomenon in which a cylindrical shell undergoing a scaling process evolves into an ordered array of filaments upon reaching a characteristic thickness. We observe that the tendency to breakup is related to the material viscosity in a manner reminiscent of capillary instability. However, unlike the classical breakup of a fluid cylinder into droplets, the structural evolution in our system occurs exclusively in the cross sectional plane while uniformity is maintained in the axial direction. We propose a fluid front instability mechanism to account for the observed phenomena. The fleeting evolution of fluid breakup from a thin film to a filament array is captured in the frozen state by a thermal drawing process which results in extended lengths of solid sub-100 nm filaments encapsulated within a polymer fiber. Hundreds of glassy semiconductor filament arrays are precisely oriented within a polymer fiber matrix making electrical connections trivial. This approach offers unique opportunities for fabrication of nanometer scale devices of unprecedented lengths allowing simplified access and connectivity.

Computation and visualization of Casimir forces in arbitrary geometries: nonmonotonic lateral-wall forces and the failure of proximity-force approximations.

We present a method of computing Casimir forces for arbitrary geometries, with any desired accuracy, that can directly exploit the efficiency of standard numerical-electromagnetism techniques. Using the simplest possible finite-difference implementation of this approach, we obtain both agreement with past results for cylinder-plate geometries, and also present results for new geometries. In particular, we examine a pistonlike problem involving two dielectric and metallic squares sliding between two metallic walls, in two and three dimensions, respectively, and demonstrate nonadditive and nonmonotonic changes in the force due to these lateral walls.

Maxwell equation simulations of coherent optical photon emission from shock waves in crystals.

We have predicted that weak coherent radiation in the 1-100 THz frequency regime can be emitted under some circumstances when a shock wave propagates through a polarizable crystal, like NaCl [Reed, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 013904 (2006)]. In this work, we present and analyze a new model of a shocked polarizable crystal that is amenable to systematic analytical study and direct numerical solution of Maxwell's equations to predict emitted coherent field amplitudes and properties. Our simulations and analysis indicate that the field amplitude of the effect decreases rapidly with increasing shock front rise distance. These models establish a fundamental limit of the ratio of emitted terahertz amplitude to the static polarization of a material. While this effect is treated classically in our previous work, we present a quantum perturbation analysis showing that it can also occur in the low-amplitude emission quantum limit.