Terahertz demonstrations of effectively two-dimensional photonic bandgap structures

We demonstrate effectively two-dimensional (2D) terahertz (THz) photonic bandgap (PBG) structures for transverse electromagnetic (TEM) mode propagation within metal parallel plate waveguides (PPWG). The 2D-PBG structures consisting of square arrays of dielectric cylinders were characterized by THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). THz photonic bandgaps were observed, as determined by the 160 mum lattice constant, the 65 mum diameter, and the dielectric constant of the cylinders. The experimental measurements were fitted with excellent agreement to 2D theory, confirming that for TEM mode propagation, effectively 2D propagation experiments can be achieved within the bounded space of the PPWG.     

基于磁光子晶体的低损耗窄带THz滤波器

本文提出一种采用石榴石型铁氧体磁性材料的太赫兹滤波器,利用波导线缺陷和腔内点缺陷的耦合特性,通过改变腔内介质柱半径及分布,实现对某个波长的耦合,达到了高效率滤波的功能;改变外磁场的大小,影响铁氧体材料的磁导率变化,使谐振频率发生改变,从而对THz波进行滤波.应用平面波展开法(PWM)和时域差分有限法(FDTD)进行仿真分析,研究结果表明,该滤波器其插入损耗为0.0997 d B,3 d B带宽为8.22 GHz,实现了低损耗窄带滤波.     

On transmittance and localization of the electromagnetic wave in two-dimensional graphene-based photonic crystals

Two-dimensional graphene-based photonic crystal (GPC) formed by a periodic array of the homogeneous dielectric cylinders etched in the alternating graphene and dielectric layers and its inverse counterpart are considered. The transmittance of the photonic crystal is obtained. The waveguide due to the localization of the electromagnetic wave on the lattice defect that breaks the translational symmetry of the GPC of two different topologies is studied. The different topologies of GPC are characterized by different photonic band structures with different widths of photonic band gaps (PBG) and provide different frequencies for the localized electromagnetic wave due to the defect. The frequencies of the localized mode for both type of the GPC, located inside the lowest PBG, are in the range of THz or tens of THz depending on the topology of the GPC. It is shown that the photonic band gap always can be tuned by changing the chemical potential of graphene to provide formation of the localized photonic mode due to the defect. The technological advantages of the GPC, as well as the opportunity to tune the PBG and the frequency of the localized electromagnetic wave in the terahertz region of spectrum for the GPC are discussed.     

光子晶体增强石墨烯THz吸收

研究了光子晶体表面石墨烯在应力赝磁场作用下的太赫兹(THz)吸收.由于应力赝磁场的存在使得石墨烯中电子出现朗道能级并对THz波呈现出一个较强的吸收.而光子晶体和石墨烯形成了表面微腔结构使得石墨烯对THz波的吸收比无光子晶体时增强了将近四倍.且可以通过改变应力赝磁场和间隔层厚度来调控石墨烯的THz吸收.     

光子晶体环形腔的四波长THz滤波器

提出一种基于光子晶体环形腔的四波长THz滤波器,该滤波器在光子晶体结构中引入两个环形腔,且环形腔内部各增加一个正方形介质柱,四周各引入一个散射介质柱。应用基于时域有限差分法(FDTD)的Rsoft软件进行仿真分析,结果表明通过对内部正方形介质柱的边长、散射介质柱半径以及耦合介质柱半径等结构参数的调节,可以滤出74.813,76.98,78.168和78.883 m四个太赫兹波长。该滤波器性能优良,透过率高、Q值高、信道隔离度大,对于THz技术应用具有重要意义。     

Dynamically Tunable and High-Contrast Graphene-Based Terahertz Electro-Optic Modulator

We propose and discuss terahertz(THz) electro-optic modulator induced by periodically patterned graphene microcavity. Due to the joint effect of graphene plasmon resonances and Fabry-Perot(F-P) oscillations, plasmon-induced transparency(PIT) effect is achieved and the operation frequency can be dynamically tuned by graphene Fermi energies and structural parameters. The results reveal that modulation depth(MD) larger than 80% is obtained across a wide frequency range from 4.2 THz to 9.4 THz, and the largest MD and Q factor reaches 95% and 15.8, respectively. In addition, operation frequency range and MD can also be tuned by optimizing the structure parameters. This investigation promises the development of high-performance widely tunable THz modulator in chip integrated photonic circuits.     

Whispering-gallery mode terahertz pulses

We report what is to our knowledge the first observation of a subpicosecond terahertz (THz) pulse propagating as a superposition of the whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) of a dielectric cylinder. The WGM THz pulses are coupled into and out of a 5-mm-diameter silicon cylinder via a 100-mum -thick, single-mode silicon slab waveguide. We observed two round-trip cylindrical cavity pulses from this coupling structure, which cover a continuous frequency range from 0.4 to 1.8 THz. The coupled-mode equations are used to analyze this system and give reasonably good agreement with the experiment in both the frequency and the time domains.     

Numerical study on characteristic of two-dimensional metal/dielectric photonic crystals

An improved plan-wave expansion method is adopted to theoretically study the photonic band diagrams of twodimensional(2D) metal/dielectric photonic crystals.Based on the photonic band structures,the dependence of flat bands and photonic bandgaps on two parameters(dielectric constant and filling factor) are investigated for two types of 2D metal/dielectric(M/D) photonic crystals,hole and cylinder photonic crystals.The simulation results show that band structures are affected greatly by these two parameters.Flat bands and bandgaps can be easily obtained by tuning these parameters and the bandgap width may reach to the maximum at certain parameters.It is worth noting that the hole-type photonic crystals show more bandgaps than the corresponding cylinder ones,and the frequency ranges of bandgaps also depend strongly on these parameters.Besides,the photonic crystals containing metallic medium can obtain more modulation of photonic bands,band gaps,and large effective refractive index,etc.than the dielectric/dielectric ones.According to the numerical results,the needs of optical devices for flat bands and bandgaps can be met by selecting the suitable geometry and material parameters.     

一种计算和分析二维光子晶体缺陷模式的方法

通过改进时域有限差分(FDTD)法,计算和分析了二维光子晶体的缺陷模式。运用一维时域有限差分算法和线性插值法在总场散射场(TF-SF)连接边界引入入射平面波,采用完全匹配层(PML)技术对外行波进行了有效吸收。计算和分析结果表明,在光子晶体非对称方向入射的平面波能激发所有的缺陷模式,选取合适的探测点位置收集电场值,经快速傅里叶变换(FFT)能得到所有的共振峰值。另外,采用该方法研究了二维正方介质柱光子晶体缺陷模的共振频率与缺陷介质柱半径和介电常量之间的关系。结果表明通过改变缺陷的半径和介电常量大小可以在光子晶体禁带中一定的范围内调节缺陷模式的共振频率大小。     

二维函数光子晶体

光子晶体是由两种或两种以上不同介电常数材料所构成的周期性光学纳米结构.光子晶体结构可分为一维、二维和三维,其中二维光子晶体已成为研究的热点.可调带隙的二维光子晶体可以设计出新型的光学器件,因此,对它的研究具有重要的理论意义和应用价值.本文提出的二维新型函数光子晶体可以实现光子晶体带隙的可调性.所谓二维函数光子晶体,即组成它的介质柱的介电常数是空间坐标的函数,它不同于介电常数为常数的二维常规光子晶体.二维函数光子晶体是通过光折变非线性光学效应或电光效应使介质柱的介电常数成为空间坐标的函数.运用平面波展开法给出了TE和TM波的本征方程,由傅里叶变换得到二维函数光子晶体介电常数ε(r)的傅里叶变换ε(G),其傅里叶变换比常规二维光子晶体的复杂.计算发现当介质柱介电常数为常数时,其傅里叶变换与常规二维光子晶体的相同,因此二维常规光子晶体是二维函数光子晶体的特例.在此基础上具体研究了二维函数光子晶体TE波和TM波的带隙结构,其介质柱介电常数函数形式取为ε(r)=k·r+b,其中k,b为可调的参数.并与二维常规光子晶体TE波和TM波的带隙结构进行了比较,发现二维函数光子晶体与二维常规光子晶体TE波和TM波的带隙结构有明显的区别,二维函数光子晶体的带隙数目、位置以及宽度随参数k的变化而发生改变.从而实现了二维函数光子晶体带隙结构的可调性,为基于二维光子晶体的光学器件的设计提供了新的设计方法和重要的理论依据.     

涂覆石墨烯的非对称并行电介质纳米线波导的模式特性分析

采用多级展开方法,对涂覆石墨烯的非对称并行电介质纳米线波导的模式特性进行了分析.首先对这种波导中的表面等离子模式进行分类,然后对七种低阶模式的有效折射率和传播长度随工作频率、几何结构参数和石墨烯费米能的依赖关系进行详细的分析.结果表明,通过改变工作频率、几何结构参数和石墨烯的费米能,可以在较大范围内调节模式的特性.与有限元法进行的对比表明,基于多级方法的半解析结果与有限元法的数值结果非常符合.研究结果可为涂覆石墨烯的非对称并行电介质纳米线的设计和制作提供一定的理论基础.     

Slow light performance enhancement of graphene-based photonic crystal waveguide

We propose a graphene-based photonic crystal (PC) slow light waveguide, which is realized by creating periodical air holes in a silicon layer to achieve spatially varying chemical potentials of graphene. The structure is optimized around 30 THz, and a large group index of 166.6 is obtained, with a very low propagation loss of ?2.1 dB/um. The corresponding normalized delay-bandwidth product reaches as high as 4.00. Furthermore, the slow light performance can be dynamically tuned by changing a bias voltage. The center frequency of the slow light waveguide can be tuned between 19.1 THz and 27.4 THz. Our results suggest that graphene-based PC structures are very promising for slow light devices.     

Effect of the dielectric background on dispersion characteristics of metallo-dielectric photonic crystals

We theoretically study the effect of the dielectric background in two-dimensional metallo-dielectric photonic crystals. The metallo-dielectric photonic crystal consists of a square lattice of circular metallic rods embedded into a dielectric background. We calculate the photonic band structure by means of the plane wave method and the frequency-dependent finite-difference time-domain method. The transfer matrix method is used to obtain the reflectivity characteristics. Results show that the band structures shift toward lower frequencies and become flatter when the background dielectric constant increases. In addition, degeneracy can be broken and new gaps can be created in function of the dielectric background. We also found that the relative band gap width Δω/ω_g grows with increasing background dielectric constant and widths as large as 42.3% and 13.8% for the second and third band gaps can be achieved for ε_b = 9. We have investigated the origin of the new gap in these structures by studying the electric-field distribution at the band edges for the first five modes.     

Graphene-based one-dimensional photonic crystal

A novel type of one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal formed by an array of periodically located stacks of alternating graphene and dielectric stripes embedded into a background dielectric medium is proposed. The wave equation for the electromagnetic wave propagating in such a structure is solved in the framework of the Kronig-Penney model. The frequency band structure of the 1D graphene-based photonic crystal is obtained analytically as a function of the filling factor and the thickness of the dielectric between the graphene stripes. The photonic frequency corresponding to the electromagnetic wave localized by a defect of the photonic crystal formed by an extra dielectric placed in the position of one stack of alternating graphene and dielectric stripes is obtained.     

Band gap extension in honeycomb lattice two-dimensional plasma photonic crystals in the presence of dissipation

We investigate two types of honeycomb lattice two-dimensional plasma photonic crystals that possess large photonic band gaps in the presence of dissipation. We obtain a clear insight into the band structures and find imaginary parts of the eigenvalue band structure at the symmetry points display discontinuous behaviour when the filling factor of plasma in type-1 structure is low. Further more, we show how the photonic band gaps are affected by the normalized plasma frequency, radius of cylinder, dielectric constant and collision frequency. Our results demonstrate the band gap extension by increasing normalized plasma frequency in both type structures and radius of plasma cylinders in type-1 structure. The width of band gaps could also be enlarged by decreasing dielectric cylinder's radius. The bands shift toward lower frequencies when relative dielectric constant increases in both two types. These results may provide theoretical instructions to design new optoelectronic devices.     

Negative refraction and the spectral filtering of terahertz radiation by a photonic crystal prism

We demonstrate how micromachined photonic crystals can be used to negatively refract terahertz frequency light. The photonic crystals, which are constructed from conventional dielectric materials, manipulate the incident beam via interaction with their photonic bands. Consequently, we show that different components of a broadband beam incident on the structure may be positively or negatively refracted, depending upon its frequency and that the structure can be used as an effective spectral filter of THz radiation.     

Influence of the dielectric background on the quality factors of metallo-dielectric photonic crystals

The effect of varying the dielectric background on the quality factor of two-dimensional metallo-dielectric photonic crystals is theoretically studied. The studied metallo-dielectric photonic crystal consists of a square lattice of circular metallic rods embedded into a dielectric background with a defect rod on the center that creates resonant modes within the photonic band gap. The metal is modeled with the Drude dispersion relation. A combination of the finite-difference time-domain method together with a frequency filtering technique is used to estimate accurately the resonant frequencies and their quality factors. The results show that the quality factors increase with increasing background dielectric constant. If a dielectric background material such as Silicon is used instead of air, an enhancement in the quality factor of up to eight times can be achieved, depending on the resonant mode. We also show that, depending on the modes, there exists an optimal size for the defect rod that gives the maximum quality factor.     

太赫兹波段三角晶格二维光子晶体的传输特性

用平面波展开法研究了太赫兹(THz)波在二维三角晶格光子晶体中的传输特性。数值计算了以硅为背景的空气圆柱构成的二维三角晶格光子晶体的能带结构和态密度,计算表明在介质圆柱半径r=0.47a(a为空气介质柱的晶格常数)出现最大完全光子带隙,带隙宽度为0.070 1 THz;当r=0.49a和r=0.45a时,E偏振和H偏振分别出现最大光子带隙,带隙宽度分别0.102 2,0.192 3 THz。光子晶体能态密度的分布也表明了存在光子带隙的范围。研究结果为THz器件的开发提供了理论依据。     

Contribution of terahertz waves to near-field radiative heat transfer between graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials alternately stacked by graphene and silicon(Si) are proposed and theoretically studied to investigate the contribution of terahertz(THz) waves to near-field radiative transfer. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient can be enhanced several times in a certain THz frequency range compared with that between graphene-covered Si bulks because of the presence of a continuum of hyperbolic modes. Moreover, the radiative heat transfer can also be enhanced remarkably for the proposed structure even in the whole THz range. The hyperbolic dispersion of the graphenebased hyperbolic metamaterial can be tuned by varying the chemical potential or the thickness of Si, with the tunability of optical conductivity and the chemical potential of graphene fixed. We also demonstrate that the radiative heat transfer can be actively controlled in the THz frequency range.     

A terahertz single-polarization single-mode photonic crystal fiber with a rectangular array of micro-holes in the core region

A single-polarization single-mode (SPSM) photonic crystal fiber with a rectangular array of micro-holes in the core region was designed in the terahertz frequency range near 1 THz. Based on the asymmetric arrangement of the micro-holes, birefringence between the fundamental x-polarized and y-polarized modes is introduced. A SPSM operation of the terahertz fiber can be supported due to the different mode indices of the x-polarized and y-polarized modes. The SPSM operation band is about 320 GHz with a central frequency of 1 THz. In addition, the proposed terahertz fiber also shows a good property of reduced propagation loss comparing with the dielectric absorption.