Spectrum created by line defects in periodic structures

We study a Helmholtz‐type spectral problem related to the propagation of electromagnetic waves in photonic crystal waveguides. The waveguide is created by introducing a linear defect into a three‐dimensional periodic medium; the defect is infinitely extended in one direction, but compactly supported in the remaining two. This perturbation introduces guided mode spectrum inside the band gaps of the fully periodic, unperturbed spectral problem. We will show that even small perturbations lead to additional spectrum in the spectral gaps of the unperturbed operator and investigate some properties of the spectrum that is created.     

Spectral gaps in the Dirichlet problem for the biharmonic operator on a plane periodically perforated by circular holes

The spectra of various operators in periodic media have a zone structure, which implies that spectral gaps, i.e., intervals on the real positive semiaxis that don’t include the spectrum (though the ends of the intervals belong to the spectrum), may appear. The spectrum of the Dirichlet problem for the biharmonic operator on a plane perforated by a double periodic family of circular holes is investigated in this paper. When the radiuses of these holes reach certain values, the plane is reduced to a countable union of bounded sets. The spectrum of the indicated problem is, to an extent, discrete in this extreme case, so there is a possibility that the spectrum of the problem close to the limit one has arbitrarily many gaps. This statement is the one proved in this paper. It is shown that, if two eigenvalues of the limit problem are different, then the corresponding bands of the continuous spectrum of the problem close to the limit one have no common points. When the eigenvalues of the limit problem coincide, the mentioned methods are unable to detect the formation of a gap between the corresponding bands of the continuous spectrum. To validate the formation of gaps, the positions of the eigenvalues of the model problem are localized on the periodicity cell. The maximinimal approach and the specific weight estimates for the eigenfunctions are used in this case.     

Periodic manifolds with spectral gaps

We investigate spectral properties of the Laplace operator on a class of non-compact Riemannian manifolds. For a given number N we construct periodic manifolds such that the essential spectrum of the corresponding Laplacian has at least N open gaps. We use two different methods. First, we construct a periodic manifold starting from an infinite number of copies of a compact manifold, connected by small cylinders. In the second construction we begin with a periodic manifold which will be conformally deformed. In both constructions, a decoupling of the different period cells is responsible for the gaps.     

Mathematical analysis of plasmonic resonance for 2-D photonic crystal

In this article, we study the plasmonic resonance of infinite photonic crystal mounted by the double negative nanoparticles in two dimensions. The corresponding physical model is described by the Helmholz equation with so called Bloch wave condition in a periodic domain. By using the quasi-periodic layer potential techniques and the spectral theorem of quasi-periodic Neumann–Poincaré operator, the quasi-static expansion of the near field in the presence of nanoparticles is derived. Furthermore, when the magnetic permeability of nanoparticles satisfies the Drude model, we give the conditions under which the plasmonic resonance occurs, and the rate of blow up of near field energy with respect to nanoparticle's bulk electron relaxation rate and filling factor are also obtained. It indicates that one can appropriately control the bulk electron relaxation rate or filling factor of nanoparticle in photonic crystal structure such that the near field energy attains its maximum, and enhancing the efficiency of energy utilization.     

Unstable gap solitons in inhomogeneous nonlinear Schrödinger equations

A periodically inhomogeneous Schrödinger equation is considered. The inhomogeneity is reflected through a non-uniform coefficient of the linear and nonlinear term in the equation. Due to the periodic inhomogeneity of the linear term, the system may admit spectral bands. When the oscillation frequency of a localized solution resides in one of the finite band gaps, the solution is a gap soliton, characterized by the presence of infinitely many zeros in the spatial profile of the soliton. Recently, how to construct such gap solitons through a composite phase portrait is shown. By exploiting the phase-space method and combining it with the application of a topological argument, it is shown that the instability of a gap soliton can be described by the phase portrait of the solution. Surface gap solitons at the interface between a periodic inhomogeneous and a homogeneous medium are also discussed. Numerical calculations are presented accompanying the analytical results.     

On guided waves in 3-D photonic crystals

The propagation of guided waves in 3-D photonic crystals is studied. In this paper, we suppose that the spectrum of reference medium (a perfectly 3-D photonic crystal) has band gaps. If a line defect is introduced along one of the lattice vectors, we prove that spectrum can be created inside the gaps of the reference spectrum if the line defect is sufficiently strong. Furthermore, we also prove that the generalized eigenfunctions corresponding to the generalized eigenvalues created by line defect are exponentially decaying away from the line defect.     

Semiclassical Spectral Asymptotics for a Two-Dimensional Magnetic Schrödinger Operator II: The Case of Degenerate Wells

We continue our study of a magnetic Schrödinger operator on a two-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold in the case when the minimal value of the module of the magnetic field is strictly positive. We analyze the case when the magnetic field has degenerate magnetic wells. The main result of the paper is an asymptotics of the groundstate energy of the operator in the semiclassical limit. The upper bounds are improved in the case when we have a localization by a miniwell effect of lowest order. These results are applied to prove the existence of an arbitrary large number of spectral gaps in the semiclassical limit in the corresponding periodic setting.     

Bragg structure and the first spectral gap

Periodic media are routinely used in optical devices and, in particular, photonic crystals to create spectral gaps, prohibiting the propagation of waves with certain temporal frequencies. In one dimension, Bragg structures, also called quarter-wave stacks, are frequently used because they are relatively easy to manufacture and the spectrum exhibits large spectral gaps at explicitly computable frequencies. In this short work, we use variational methods to demonstrate that within an admissible class of pointwise-bounded, periodic media, the Bragg structure uniquely maximizes the first spectral gap-to-midgap ratio.     

Spectral gaps for periodic Schrödinger operators with hypersurface magnetic wells: Analysis near the bottom

We consider a periodic magnetic Schrödinger operator Hh, depending on the semiclassical parameter h>0, on a noncompact Riemannian manifold M such that H¹(M,R)=0 endowed with a properly discontinuous cocompact isometric action of a discrete group. We assume that there is no electric field and that the magnetic field has a periodic set of compact magnetic wells. We suppose that the magnetic field vanishes regularly on a hypersurface S. First, we prove upper and lower estimates for the bottom λ₀(Hh) of the spectrum of the operator Hh in L²(M). Then, assuming the existence of non-degenerate miniwells for the reduced spectral problem on S, we prove the existence of an arbitrarily large number of spectral gaps for the operator Hh in the region close to λ₀(Hh), as h→0. In this case, we also obtain upper estimates for the eigenvalues of the one-well problem.     

Degenerate boundary conditions for the diffusion operator

We describe all degenerate two-point boundary conditions possible in a homogeneous spectral problem for the diffusion operator. We show that the case in which the characteristic determinant is identically zero is impossible for the nonsymmetric diffusion operator and that the only possible degenerate boundary conditions are the Cauchy conditions. For the symmetric diffusion operator, the characteristic determinant is zero if and only if the boundary conditions are falsely periodic boundary conditions; the characteristic determinant is identically a nonzero constant if and only if the boundary conditions are generalized Cauchy conditions.     

周期手性结构电磁散射问题的积分方程方法

In this paper, we consider the electromagnetic scattering by a periodic chiral structure. The media is homogeneous and the structure is periodic in one direction and invariant in another direction. The electromagnetic fields inside the chiral medium are governed by Maxwell equations together with the Drude-BornFedorov equations. We simplify the problem to a two-dimensional scattering problem and discuss the existence and the uniqueness of solutions by an integral equation approach. We show that for all but possibly a discrete set of wave numbers, the integral equation has a unique solution.     

The band spectrum of the periodic Airy–Schrödinger operator on the real line

We introduce the periodic Airy–Schrödinger operator and we describe its band spectrum. This is an example of solvable model with a periodic potential which is not differentiable at its extrema. We prove that there exists a sequence of explicit constants giving upper bounds of the semiclassical parameter for which explicit estimates are valid. We completely determine the behaviour of the edges of the first spectral band with respect to the semiclassical parameter. Then, we investigate the spectral bands and gaps situated in the range of the potential. We prove precise estimates on the widths of these spectral bands and these spectral gaps and we determine an upper bound on the integrated spectral density in this range. Finally, we get estimates of the edges of spectral bands and thus of the widths of spectral bands and spectral gaps which are stated for values of the semiclassical parameter in fixed intervals.     

On the spectra and eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger and Maxwell operators

The new sufficient conditions of the exponential decay of eigenfunctions and the absence of eigenvalues are obtained for the second-order elliptic operator in L²(rⁿ), generalizing the Schrödinger operator, and for the Maxwell operator with the matrix medium characteristics (the crystal optics operator) in L²(rⁿ).     

Relative oscillation theory for Dirac operators

We develop relative oscillation theory for one-dimensional Dirac operators which, rather than measuring the spectrum of one single operator, measures the difference between the spectra of two different operators. This is done by replacing zeros of solutions of one operator by weighted zeros of Wronskians of solutions of two different operators. In particular, we show that a Sturm-type comparison theorem still holds in this situation and demonstrate how this can be used to investigate the number of eigenvalues in essential spectral gaps. Furthermore, the connection with Krein's spectral shift function is established. As an application we extend a result by K.M. Schmidt on the finiteness/infiniteness of the number of eigenvalues in essential spectral gaps of perturbed periodic Dirac operators.     

Spectral approximation of quadratic operator polynomials arising in photonic band structure calculations

Galerkin spectral approximation theory for non-self-adjoint quadratic operator polynomials with periodic coefficients is considered. The main applications are complex band structure calculations in metallic photonic crystals, periodic waveguides, and metamaterials. We show that the spectrum of the considered operator polynomials consists of isolated eigenvalues of finite multiplicity with a nonzero imaginary part. The spectral problem is equivalent to a non-compact block operator matrix and norm convergence is shown for a block operator matrix having the same generalized eigenvectors as the original operator. Convergence rates of finite element discretizations are considered and numerical experiments with the $p$ -version and the $h$ -version of the finite element method confirm the theoretical convergence rates.     

A gap in the spectrum of the Neumann–Laplacian on a periodic waveguide

We study a spectral problem related to the Laplace operator in a singularly perturbed periodic waveguide. The waveguide is a quasi-cylinder which contains a periodic arrangement of inclusions. On the boundary of the waveguide, we consider both Neumann and Dirichlet conditions. We prove that provided the diameter of the inclusion is small enough the spectrum of Laplace operator contains band gaps, i.e. there are frequencies that do not propagate through the waveguide. The existence of the band gaps is verified using the asymptotic analysis of elliptic operators.     

Spectral Asymptotics for Schrödinger Operators with Periodic Point Interactions

Spectrum of the second-order differential operator with periodic point interactions in L₂(R) is investigated. Classes of unitary equivalent operators of this type are described. Spectral asymptotics for the whole family of periodic operators are calculated. It is proven that the first several terms in the asymptotics determine the class of equivalent operators uniquely. It is proven that the spectrum of the operators with anomalous spectral asymptotics (when the ratio between the lengths of the bands and gaps tends to zero at infinity) can be approximated by standard periodic “weighted” operators with step-wise density functions. It is shown that this sequence of periodic weighted operators converges in the norm resolvent sense to the formal (generalized) resolvent of the periodic “Schrödinger operator” with certain energy-dependent boundary conditions. The operator acting in an extended Hilbert space such that its resolvent restricted to L₂(R) coincides with the formal resolvent is constructed explicitly.     

Gauge-periodic point perturbations on the Lobachevsky plane

We study periodic point perturbations of the Shrödinger operator with a uniform magnetic field on the Lobachevsky plane. We prove that the spectrum gaps of the perturbed operator are labeled by the elements of the K₀ group of aC ^* algebra associated with the operator. In particular, if theC ^* algebra has the Kadison property, then the operator spectrum has a band structure.     

Boundary element approximation for Maxwell's eigenvalue problem

We introduce a new method for computing eigenvalues of the Maxwell operator with boundary finite elements. On bounded domains with piecewise constant material coefficients, the Maxwell solution for fixed wave number can be represented by boundary integrals, which allows to reduce the eigenvalue problem to a nonlinear problem for determining the wave number along with boundary and interface traces. A Galerkin discretization yields a smooth nonlinear matrix eigenvalue problem that is solved by Newton's method or, alternatively, the contour integral method. Several numerical results including an application to the band structure computation of a photonic crystal illustrate the efficiency of this approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectral gaps in the dirichlet and neumann problems on the plane perforated by a doubleperiodic family of circular holes

We show that the spectrum of the Dirichlet and Neumann problems for the Laplace operator in the plane perforated by a double–periodic family of circular holes contains gaps (even any a priori given number of gaps) of certain radii of holes. The result is obtained by asymptotic analysis of the cell spectral problem, interpreted as a problem in a domain with thin bridges. Some open questions are stated.