Transformation of a transmission mechanism by filling the holes of normal silica-guiding microstructure fibers with nematic liquid crystal

Transformation of an optical transmission mechanism was achieved when the holes of normal silica-guiding microstructure fiber (MF) were filled with nematic liquid crystal (NLC). Moreover, two photonic bandgaps (PBGs) were obtained by using a plane-wave method to create the pattern. The wavelength dependence of the effective mode area, leakage loss, and group velocity dispersion (GVD) has been theoretically investigated by using a full-vector finite-element method with anisotropic perfectly matched layers. The results reveal that the characteristics of the NLC-filled PBG-MFs are particularly wavelength dependent. This research gives a physical insight into the propagation mechanism in MFs and is crucial for future transmission applications.     

Transmission of light through a plane-parallel plate of a two-dimensional resonant photonic crystal

The transmission spectra of two-dimensional resonant photonic crystals of two types have been investigated. Crystals of one type consist of dielectric cylinders forming a square lattice filled by a resonant gas with mercury atoms, and crystals of the other type consist of cylindrical holes filled with a gas and forming a square lattice in a dielectric matrix. It has been established that characteristics of the spectrum of additional transmission arising in the band gap of the photonic crystal can be changed significantly by varying the gas pressure and the angle of incidence. It has been demonstrated that the calculated features in the transmission spectrum of the photonic crystal are stable with respect to a significant increase in the width of the atomic resonance.     

The extraordinary optical transmission characters of the metallic film with rectangular hole arrays

The metallic films perforated with a periodic array of air holes show extraordinary optical transmission properties. In this paper the influence of the incident light's polarization direction and the arrays’ period on the transmission through the rectangular hole arrays immersed in a metallic film is studied by utilizing the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the intensities and number of the transmission peaks can be adjusted by changing the incident light's polarization direction, while the intensities can keep constant for some particular frequencies. The transmission peak's wavelength can be easily controlled by altering the lattice period parallel to the electric field for the rectangular holes. These results maybe provide reference for the design of multiple-wavelength resonance devices.     

Tuning the optical transmission through a homogeneous doped semiconductor film by applying an external magnetic field

We theoretically and numerically studied the transmission of light through a homogeneous doped semiconductor film with a Drude tensor in the presence of an external magnetic field. The magneto-induced homogeneous metal films are found to exhibit a magneto-induced light transparency due to cyclotron resonance. In particular, the surface plasmon (SP) resonance mode of the magneto-induced metal film move to higher frequencies with increasing magnetic field, bringing about large changes in the extraordinary light transmission peaks predicted to occur in such a magneto-induced semiconductor film.     

折射率对金属-电介质-金属光子晶体强透射特性的影响

通过改变一个薄电介质层的折射率来研究其对金属-电介质-金属光子晶体(M-D-MPhC)强透射特性的影响。采用与CMOS工艺兼容技术制作了由折射率分别为[nd(SU-8)=1.6,nd(SiO2.1N0.3)=1.6和nd(SiO0.6N1)=1.8]组成的三个正方形晶格圆孔阵列M-D-MPhC结构,利用傅里叶变换红外光谱仪测量其透射光谱。实验结果发现,金-SiO2.1N0.3-金结构能够获得较强的光透射增强效果和较窄的透射峰,证明了M-D-MPhC强透射特性既与中间电介质折射率大小有关,又与其材料制作工艺差异有关。采用时域有限差分(FDTD)法模拟了在相同条件下折射率分别为1.6和1.8组成的M-D-MPhC透射光谱和电场强度密度分布,模拟结果较好地符合了实验发现。     

Effective dielectric constant of two-dimensional photonic crystals in optical bands

By using the Fourier expansion method, we have developed an approach to calculate the effective dielectric index of a two-dimensional photonic crystal. The approach is very general: it can take into account various Bravais lattice structure as well as arbitrary spatial variation of the dielectric index. It has been found that near a nondegenerate frequency ω_n(Γ) at Γ point, the transverse magnetic (TM) mode is ordinary, as it is independent of the propagation direction, whereas in general the transverse electric (TE) mode depends on the propagation direction, it is extraordinary. Therefore, a two-dimensional photonic crystal can always be described by an effective dielectric index for TM mode near the nondegenerate frequency ω_n(Γ). However, the TE mode is much more complicated unless the lattice structure is highly symmetric. Moreover, a two-dimensional square photonic crystal has been identified as an effective birefringent crystal having two negative refractive indexes from the perspective of Snell's law.     

Band structure of a two-dimensional resonant photonic crystal

The band structure of two-dimensional resonant photonic crystals of two types has been calculated using the expansion of eigenfunctions in plane waves. Crystals of one type consist of infinite dielectric cylinders forming a square lattice filled with a resonant gas, and crystals of the other type consist of infinite cylindrical holes filled with a resonant gas and forming a square lattice in a dielectric matrix. It has been shown that, in both cases, the dispersion of a resonant gas in combination with the dispersion of a two-dimensional structure with a photonic band gap leads to the appearance of an additional narrow transmission band near the edge of the band gap or an additional band gap in the continuous spectrum of the photonic crystal. The calculations performed have demonstrated that new dispersion properties substantially depend on the density of the resonant gas, the position of the resonant frequency with respect to the edge of the band gap, and the direction of propagation of electromagnetic waves.     

Refraction-based photonic crystal diode

A system composed of air holes in a dielectric host to form two square photonic crystals, with the same orientation and lattice constant but different scatterer radii, making an interface along their body diagonals, is numerically demonstrated to facilitate unidirectional light transmission. Band structure computations are carried out via the plane wave expansion method, whereas finite-difference time-domain simulations are carried out to investigate the transient behavior. Unidirectional light transmission is achieved over two adjacent stop bands along the ΓX direction, which are circumvented in the forward direction by scaling down the wave vector and rotating the surface normal. Contrast ratios as high as 0.9 are attained within the lower stop band.     

Infrared reflectance spectrum of BN calculated from first principles

Using the linear response theory, vibrational and dielectric properties are calculated for c-BN, w-BN and h-BN. Calculations of the zone-center optical-mode frequencies (including LO-TO splittings) are reported. All optic modes are identified and excellent agreement is found between the theory and experimental results. The static dielectric tensor is decomposed into contributions arising from individual infrared-active phonon modes. It is found that all the structures have a smaller lattice dielectric constants than those of the electronic contributions. Finally, the infrared reflectance spectrums are presented. Our theoretical results indicate that w-BN shows a similar reflectivity spectrum as c-BN. It is difficult to tell apart the wurtzite structure from the zinc blende phase by IR spectroscopy.     

金孔阵列电介质与金电介质孔阵列的强透射特性

采用时域有限差分（FDTD）法研究了金膜厚度、电介质折射率及其厚度对金孔阵列电介质与金电介质孔阵列两种结构强透射特性的影响。研究发现这两种结构都具有较好的强透射特性,这表明光与金膜表面自由电子的电荷密度波耦合成表面等离子激元（SPP）,对增强透射起到了关键作用。金膜厚度是影响强透射特性的主要因素,其衰减长度为35 nm;而与金膜相邻的电介质膜厚度对强透射特性影响极小。电介质折射率大小对强透射特性影响明显,折射率为1.8时能够获得较好的强透射特性。     

Extraordinary light transmission through a metal film perforated by a subwavelength hole array

It is shown that, depending on the incident wave frequency and the system geometry, the extraordinary transmission of light through a metal film perforated by an array of subwavelength holes can be described by one of the three mechanisms: the “transparency window” in the metal, excitation of the Fabry–Perot resonance of a collective mode produced by the hybridization of evanescence modes of the holes and surface plasmons, and excitation of a plasmon on the rear boundary of the film. The excitation of a plasmon resonance on the front boundary of the metal film does not make any substantial contribution to the transmission coefficient, although introduces a contribution to the reflection coefficient.     

Enhanced light transmission through cascaded metal films perforated with periodic hole arrays

We report experimental results on enhanced light transmission through two periodically perforated metal films separated by a layer of dielectric. A perforated metal film (single metallic structure) exhibits extraordinary optical transmission, and when two such perforated metal films are spaced by a dielectric layer (cascaded metallic structure), the transmission is further increased. The maximum transmission of the cascaded metallic structure, which depends on the distance between the two metal films, can be more than 400% greater than that of a corresponding single metallic structure. It is proposed that the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons between the two metal films is involved in the process.     

Directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons in structure of subwavelength metallic holes

In this paper, we propose a structure formed by two subwavelength holes fabricated in a metal film to realize directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The holes are employed as SPP sources, and the relative phase of SPPs generated at the hole exit end can be adjusted by changing the dielectric material filled in holes. Using the difference in relative phase values of SPP for two holes filled with different dielectric media, the SPPs can interfere constructively along one direction while destructively along the opposite direction. Our theoretical analysis is verified by the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. Moreover, the directional excitation of SPPs in two-hole array structure is also discussed. It is found that the effect of SPPs directional excitation is improved with the increase of the number of two-hole.     

Enhanced optical transmission through a nanoslit by coupling light between periodic strips and metal film

Surface plasmon resonance （SPR） is obtained by exciting the surface plasmon （SP） at the metal and dielectric interface, which can greatly enhance the extraordinary optical transmission （EOT） through a nanoslit milled in the metal film. We present a structure with a 50-nm-wide silver nanoslit for EOT by coupling light into the dielectric interlayer between periodic strips and a metal film. When the period of the metallic strips is equal to the wavelength of the SPR, the transmission efficiency of 187.6 through the nanoslit is enhanced. The metallic strip width over the nanoslit is optimized to improve transmission efficiency, and the maximal efficiency of 204.3 is achieved.     

Rotations of eigenvibration direction in anisotropic crystals

The electric field of incident light induces dipoles in anisotropic media, vibrating in two perpendicular directions of the principal axes. Because of the tensor property of the dielectric constant, an induced dipole is subject to a torque, tending to rotate it about the axis parallel to the propagation direction. The directions of eigenvibration of the ordinary (o-ray) and extraordinary (e-ray) waves are no longer perpendicular in this sense. We propose here the relationships to describe the rotation of the induced dipole in the perpendicular electric fields. The rotation angles are found to increase with increasing dielectric constants and electric field strength of the incident light, exhibiting large values near the resonance frequencies in the infrared range at the azimuth angle /4 of the polarized incident light. Piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals have a large value of the dielectric constant in the infrared frequency range. Rotations of the vibration direction of the o-ray and the e-ray waves are shown in the infrared transmission spectra recorded by incidence of the polarized light and transmission through piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals (-quartz, LiNbO₃, and LiTaO₃). Interference of the o-ray and the e-ray waves transmitted through the crystals confirms the rotations of the vibration directions, a self-modulation effect of light in piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals induced by the electric field of the propagating light.     

Photonic band structure in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of equilateral triangles

In this paper, the plane wave expansion method is used to calculate the photonic band structure (PBS) for the transverse electric (TE) polarization in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice composed air holes with cross-sections in the shape of equilateral triangles embedded in a GaAs background. We consider that the dielectric constant of GaAs is dependent on both hydrostatic pressure and temperature. Further, an increase can be observed in the width of the photonic band gap (PBG) while the lengths of the sides of the equilateral triangles are increased. When the pressure increases in the presence of a constant temperature, the dielectric constant of GaAs decreases; further, the PBS exhibits a more noticeable shift toward regions of higher frequencies than that observed while the temperature is increased at a given pressure. We also observed that the PBG obtained by rotating the triangular holes by an angle θ increases when compared against the results obtained for the lattice of holes without performing any rotation. In addition, the results obtained using the supercell technique denote that the position and width of the PBG remain unchanged while removing a triangular hole from the structure, denoting the presence of a defective band within the PBG.     

Tunable Photonic Crystal Mach--Zehnder Interferometer Based on Self-collimation Effect

A theoretical model for tunable Mach--Zehnder interferometers (TMZIs) constructed in a two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D PhC) is proposed. The 2D PhC consists of a square lattice of cylindric air holes in silicon. The TMZI includes two mirrors and two splitters. Light propagates between them employing a self-collimation effect. The two interferometer branches have different path lengths. Parts of the longer branch are infiltrated with a kind of liquid crystal (LC) with ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices 1.522 and 1.706, respectively. The transmission spectra at two TMZI output ports are in the shape of sinusoidal curves and have a uniform peak spacing 0.0017c/a in the frequency range from 0.26c/a to 0.27c/a. When the effective refractive index n_eff of the liquid crystal is increased from 1.522 to 1.706, the peaks shift to the lower frequencies over 0.0017c/a while the peak spacing is almost kept unchanged. Thus this TMZI can work as a tunable power splitter or an optical switch. For the central operating wavelength around 1550nm, its dimensions are only about tens of micron. Thus this device may be applied to photonic integrated circuits.     

Some dynamical properties of a two-dimensional Wigner crystal

Results for the static part of the ground state energy of the square and hexagonal two-dimensional Wigner lattices are given. The hexagonal lattice has the lower energy. Phonon dispersion curves and the vibrational zeropoint energy are calculated for the hexagonal lattice. The dielectric susceptibility tensor of a two-dimensional Wigner crystal χ_αβ(q) has been determined in the long wavelength limit in the presence of a static magnetic field perpendicular to the crystal, and explicit expressions have been obtained for the hexagonal lattice. Applying the analysis developed by Chiu and Quinn, the results for the susceptibility have been used to obtain the dispersion relation for the plasma oscillations in the electron crystal on the assumption that the crystal is embedded in a dielectric medium. The dispersion curves have been calculated for differing magnitudes of the applied magnetic field.     

Extraordinary Transmission through Metallic Grating with Subwavelength Slits for S-Polarization Illumination

Based on the rigorous coupled-wave analysis algorithm, we have systematically analysed the effect of the geometrical parameters of a dielectric film coated metallic grating with subwavelength slits on extraordinary optical transmission for s-polarization illumination. Results show that the dielectric film which sustains a waveguide electromagnetic mode on the top of the metallic lamellar grating can strongly enhance the transmittance, the positions of the transmission peaks are mainly determined by the period of the metallic grating, the thickness and refractive index of the dielectric film. This structure shows potential applications in excellent polarizers or polarization-isotropic devices at infrared spectral range by appropriately choosing the geometrical parameters.     

Topological structure in polarization resolved conoscopic patterns for nematic liquid crystal cells

We investigate the polarization structure of coherent light, produced by a convergent light beam transmitted through nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells with different director configurations. Employing solutions to the transmission problem for the case when plane wave propagates through an anisotropic layer, we analyze the arrangement of the topological elements, such as polarization singularities (C points with circular polarization and L lines with linear polarization), saddle points and extrema of polarization azimuth. We observe transformations of the topological structure under the variation of the incident light ellipticity and represent it by corresponding trajectories of topological elements in three-dimensional space. For the cells with uniform and non-uniform director configuration we describe the processes of creation/annihilation of C point pairs, which can be controlled precisely in the case of the cell with non-uniform director. Our experimental measurements for the homeotropically oriented NLC cells are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.