Tunability of graded negative index-based photonic crystal lenses for fine focusing

Graded negative refractive index-based photonic crystal (PC) lenses are designed by gradually modifying the sizes of air holes along the transverse direction for focusing the incident plane wave. To study the tunability of the graded negative index-based PC, we introduce filling factor A, gradually tune the filling factor, and use the finite-difference and time-domain (FDTD) algorithm for numerical calculation. Our calculation results indicate that the focal length and the spot size increase with A increasing. For the same A value, the focal length of a PC with elliptical air holes is the longest, and those of PC with square and rectangular air holes are the shortest. Moreover, when the focal length is greater than 1 μm, the focal parameters of the PC are highly insensitive to the variation of A. When the focal length is less than 1 μm, the PC lenses have higher transmittances and all well focus with a beam spot size breaking the diffraction limit. This feature possibly makes the graded negative index-based PC lenses have some new applications in optoelectronic systems.     

Graded photonic crystals for graded index lens

A graded index lens made from graded 2D photonic crystal has been designed by the means of the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. The gradient of index has been obtained by varying the filling factor of a flat slab of photonic crystal in the direction perpendicular to that of the propagation of the electromagnetic field. This gradient has been designed in such a way that the flat slab focuses a plane wave. As only a few layers are necessary, graded photonic crystals show their ability to efficiently control the propagation of light and may apply to various photonic devices, from the microwave range to the optical domain.     

Study on the anisotropic photonic band gaps in three-dimensional tunable photonic crystals containing the epsilon-negative materials and uniaxial materials

In this paper, the properties of anisotropic photonic band gaps (PBGs) for three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals (PCs) composed of the anisotropic positive-index materials (the uniaxial materials) and the epsilon-negative (ENG) materials with body-centered-cubic (bcc) lattices are theoretically studied by a modified plane wave expansion (PWE) method, which are the uniaxial materials spheres inserted in the epsilon-negative materials background. The anisotropic photonic band gaps (PBGs) and one flatbands region can be achieved in first irreducible Brillouin zone. The influences of the ordinary-refractive index, extraordinary-refractive index, filling factor, the electronic plasma frequency, the dielectric constant of ENG materials and the damping factor on the properties of anisotropic PBGs for such 3D PCs are studied in detail, respectively, and some corresponding physical explanations are also given. The numerical results show that the anisotropy can open partial band gaps in such 3D PCs with bcc lattices composed of the ENG materials and uniaxial materials, and the complete PBGs can be obtained compared to the conventional 3D PCs containing the isotropic materials. The calculated results also show that the anisotropic PBGs can be manipulated by the parameters as mentioned above except for the damping factor. Introducing the uniaxial materials into 3D PCs containing the ENG materials can obtain the larger complete PBGs as such 3D PCs with high symmetry, and also provides a way to design the tunable devices.     

Graphene based photonic crystal optical filter: Design and exploration of the tunability

Optical characteristics of two new graphene based photonic crystals are studied in detail. A structure containing alternating layers of graphene and SiO₂ slabs is considered as the ideal crystal. The dependency of the photonic band gaps (PBGs) to the dielectric layer thickness and the period number is explored at first step. Potential of the proposed crystal to be used as an optical filter is then investigated. Adding a nonlinear electro-optic polymer as a defect layer, the alterations of the optical features are inspected. Results show that the defect layer insertion causes a resonant mode inside the PBGs. However, the location of the defect layer inside the crystal is very effective on both the frequency and width of the resonant mode. Tunability of the optical features is probed by taking into account of the dependencies to the wave incident angle, graphene chemical potential and the applied external voltage to the defect layer.     

The effect of random variations of structure parameters on photonic band gaps of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystals

The electromagnetic properties of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystals influenced by random perturbation of structure parameters are studied through transfer matrix method in the paper. The random perturbation of thicknesses of layers as well as plasma frequency of layers can influence the electromagnetic properties of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal. The random perturbation of thicknesses of layers tremendously impacts the band structure of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystals in high frequency domain. The random perturbation of plasma frequency, however, contributes to the moving of a cutoff frequency in the low frequency domain. The position of the defect mode of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal randomly moves due to the random perturbations. The effect of random perturbation of plasma frequency is more significant than that of random perturbation of thickness of layers, which alters not only the transmittance but also the position of the defect mode. An improved quality factor and a shortened moving distance of the defect mode are both acquired by increasing the period number. And then this work may provide a crude but useful instrument in analyzing disordered 1DPPCs.     

Complete photonic band gaps in one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals containing single negative materials

Complete photonic band gaps (PBGs) are found in one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals (1D TPCs) composed of an ordinary dielectric and single negative metamaterials. The proposed TPC gives omni directional PBG completely independent of polarizations dependent weekly on angle of incidence. Here the choice of different parameters of TPC is done in such a way so that it eliminates the Brewster's-angle transmission resonance, thus allowing a complete 3D PBG. It exhibits a photonic band or gap near frequencies where either the magnetic permeability or the electric permittivity of the metamaterial changes sign, whose width increases with the increasing angle of incidence. These result from the dispersive properties of the metamaterials and disappear for the particular case of propagation along the stratification direction. The results are discussed in terms of incident angle, layer thickness, dielectric constant of the dielectric material for TE and TM polarizations.     

High-<Emphasis Type="Italic">Q</Emphasis> filters based on one-dimensional photonic crystals using epsilon-negative materials

A new type of filter based on one-dimensional photonic crystals is presented. A photonic crystal consists of a periodic repetition of air layers and epsilon-negative (ENG) material layers. This type of filter has high-Q values without defects. The Q values and the filtering frequency can be precisely adjusted by modulating the thicknesses of the ENG material layers and the air layers, respectively. A method of deciding the position of the transmission band for the photonic crystals is presented. The effect of absorption of ENG materials on the filter is also considered. PACS 42.70.Qs; 78.20.Ci; 41.20.Jb     

Applications of the expanded basis method to study the properties of photonic crystals with frequency-dependent dielectric functions and dielectric losses

Band structures of two-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) made of polar material with frequency-dependent dielectric constant are calculated by using an expanded basis method. The effect of the polariton gap (PG) of polar material on the photonic band gaps (PBGs) is explored. It is found that the PBGs are significantly modified near the PG, where the abrupt change of the dielectric constant appears. The feature of electromagnetic (EM) field is revealed when the frequency is located in the flat band. We display the equifrequency-surface configuration of the localized field and the spacial distributions of field. We observe the existence of several equi-ω curves for a specified frequency and the localized field distribution exhibiting various different patterns, dependent of the mode index. We also study the influence of the dielectric losses of the polar material on dispersion and find that the change of the real part of the Bloch wave vector is crucially related to the real part of the dielectric constant and the attenuated length is determined by its imaginary part.     

Omnidirectional photonic band gaps in one-dimensional gradient refractive index photonic crystals considering linear and quadratic profiles

By using the transfer matrix formalism, in this work it is presented the study of the optical properties of 1D photonic structures constructed with M periods of bilayers of dielectric material and slabs with gradient refractive index (GRIN) profile of two types: linear and quadratic. By varying the profile parameters, preserving the average value of the refractive index for the GRIN slab, the results show the formation of new photonic band gaps whose bandwidths depends on the slope and the curvature of the linear and quadratic profile respectively. Also, it can be observed the formation of omnidirectional photonic bandgaps for the TE and TM polarizations, one for the linear profile and three for the quadratic one, for which their bandwidths depend linearly on the slope and the curvature of the GRIN profiles. It is expected that the presented results could be useful in the construction of optical devices based in their optical response under oblique incidence.     

Theoretical study on the photonic band gap in one-dimensional photonic crystals with graded multilayer structure

We theoretically investigate the photonic band gap in one-dimensional photonic crystals with a graded multilayer structure. The proposed structure constitutes an alternating composite layer (metallic nanoparticles embedded in TiO2 film) and an air layer. Regarding the multilayer as a series of capacitance, effective optical properties are derived. The dispersion relation is obtained with the solution of the transfer matrix equation. With a graded structure in the composite layer, numerical results show that the position and width of the photonic band gap can be effectively modulated by varying the number of the graded composite layers, the volume fraction of nanoparticles and the external stimuli.     

Two dimension photonic crystal Y-branch beam splitter with variation of splitting ratio based on hybrid defect controlled

This article represents a new Y-branch hybrid design of 2D photonic crystal with defect control. The structure is made of hexagonal arrays of InP nano-rods surrounded by air. This system is comprised of a modified add/change to a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) rod, which can be applied to the beam splitter selection device. The optical properties and radial of PMMA defect rods have been transfigured. By selecting an appropriate temperature, a change of refractive index and expanded radius are occurred. The obtained results have shown that the selected optical amplitude in a hybrid semiconductor-polymer Y-branch can be separated to 50–50, 60–40 and 67–33 % at wavelength 1.557 µm. Both of the photonic band gap and transmission spectra are calculated by using 2D finite different time domain (FDTD) method via OptiFDTD software. Such a device can be useful for photonic crystal switching devices in the integrated optical circuit.     

Tunable photonic Bloch oscillations in electrically modulated photonic crystals

We exploit theoretically the occurrence and tunability of photonic Bloch oscillations (PBOs) in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) containing nonlinear composites. Because of the enhanced third-order nonlinearity (Kerr-type nonlinearity) of composites, photons undergo oscillations inside tilted photonic bands, which are achieved by the application of graded external-pump electric fields on such PCs, varying along the direction perpendicular to the surface of layers. The tunability of PBOs (including amplitude and period) is readily achieved by changing the field gradient. With an appropriate graded pump ac or dc electric field, terahertz PBOs can appear and cover a terahertz band in an electromagnetic spectrum.     

Magnetic surface plasmon-induced tunable photonic bandgaps in two-dimensional magnetic photonic crystals

We experimentally studied magnetically controllable photonic band gaps (PBGs) in two-dimensional magnetic photonic crystals consisting of ferrite rods. Besides the conventional PBG that relates to Bragg scattering, two other types of PBG, resulting from magnetic surface plasmon (MSP) resonance and spin-wave resonance, respectively, are observed. The PBG due to MSP resonance is particularly interesting because of its analogy to surface plasmon in metal; furthermore, it is shown to be completely tunable by an external static magnetic field from both an experimental and a theoretical point of view.     

基元配置对二维光子晶体不同能带之间带隙的调节和优化

介绍一种方法来调节和优化二维光子晶体不同能带之间的带隙.在单胞中任意位置增加一个基元,可以调节不同能带之间的带隙.而且固定两个基元的最佳位置,调节两个基元柱体边长,可以找到一个合适的配置,使各自的带隙相对带宽达到更大值.同时结果也表明双基元情况下,不同能带之间带隙优化对系统对称性要求不同,频率越高处的带隙优化要求系统对称性越低. 关键词： 光子晶体 带隙 配置 对称性     

Absolute photonic band gaps of two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystals with Taiji-shaped dielectric rods

A novel structure of two-dimensional (2D) square-lattice photonic crystal (SLPC) composed of Taiji-shaped dielectric rods imbedded in air is constructed and the properties of absolute photonic band gap (PBG) are theoretically analyzed in both the number and width by Plane Wave Expansion Method (PWM). By comparing the absolute PBGs in 2D SLPCs consisting of four shapes of rods with different symmetries (circle, button, semicircle and Taiji) at the same filling ratio, we find that both the number and width of absolute PBG significantly increase with the breaking of scatterer's symmetry, and the Taiji-shaped rods with the poorest symmetry can attain both the most number and the largest width of absolute PBGs. Additionally, we also study the influence of dielectric constant ε and three geometric parameters of Taiji-shaped scatterer on the absolute PBG and discover that the SLPC with Taiji-shaped rods can generate at most nine absolute PBGs and the largest absolute PBG with the width 0.0485 (ωa/2πc).     

传输可见光的空芯光子带隙光纤的研究

利用全矢量平面波展开法(FVPWM)对采用改进的两次堆积法制备的空芯光子带隙光纤进行了数值模拟.在特定传播常数β下,光纤在500—1000 nm的波段内出现多条宽窄不同的有效光子带隙.依据有效折射率的不同,部分带隙中的空气-导模将以不同的形式存在.经过实验测试,发现测得的带隙位置相对于模拟结果向短波段发生了较明显的移动,主要原因被认为是光纤结构的纵向不均匀性和包层节点处间隙孔的存在. 关键词： 空芯光子带隙光纤 全矢量平面波展开法 有效光子带隙 空气-导模     

Emission of bound optical modes of photonic glasses from silica spheres

The effect of bound optical modes of photonic glasses from silica spheres on their luminescence in the visible range of the spectrum is investigated. It is shown that local photonic states give rise to a fine structure in luminescence spectra, positions of the maxima of which depend on the diameters of SiO₂ nano-spheres. A theoretical model of the calculation of characteristic wavelengths of bound modes and values of the Purcell factor for the amplification of spontaneous luminescence into these modes is proposed. It is revealed that the experimental data agree well with theoretical results for the intrinsic luminescence of photonic glasses with different diameters of silica spheres.     

Transmission properties of photonic quantum well composed of dispersive materials

The transmission properties of one-dimensional photonic quantum well structure produced by inserting defect layers into dispersive photonic crystals have been investigated. These photonic crystals are stacked alternatively with two kinds of dispersive material layers. The inserted layers structure is another kind of dispersive photonic crystal. It has been turned out that the confined states are quantized.     

Huge photonic band gaps with strong attenuations resulted from quasi-one-dimensional waveguide networks composed of triangular fundamental loops

In order to design systems generating large photonic band gaps (PBGs), in this paper we construct interesting quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) periodic triangular, diamond, and tetrahedral networks composed of 1D waveguides and triangular fundamental loops. The optical frequency band structures and photonic attenuation behaviors of electromagnetic (EM) waves propagating in the three kinds of one- and two-segment-connected (1SC and 2SC) networks without dissipation are, respectively, investigated and we find that huge PBGs can be produced in the middle of a frequency period and the widths of the largest PBGs can be controlled by adjusting the matching ratio of waveguide length. When the ratio equals 2:1, the width of the hugest PBG resulted in tetrahedral network reaches 0.73 times of a frequency period and is about 1.16 times of the best result reported previously. The average attenuations of the largest PBGs are very strong and increase rapidly with the increment of the number of unit cell. This makes our designed networks with very few unit cells exhibit wonderful PBG features and they can be realized in experiments easily. It may be useful for the designing of optical devices with large PBG and strong attenuation.