Condensed Matter Physics Commons^™

Topological Classical Wave Systems With Modulations, Interactions, And Higher-Order Topological States, Mengyao Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Topological phases in classical wave systems, such as photonic and acoustic, have been actively investigated and applied for wave guiding, lasing, and numerous other novel phenomena and device applications Topological phase transitions enable robust boundary states, and the field has been broadening recently into a vast variety of systems with temporal modulations and interactions. Floquet modulation, for example, is the modulation applied periodically in time which may break symmetries and leads to novel topological phases.

Introducing non-Hermitian Floquet modulation enables more interesting phenomena including bandgap in imaginary part of the spectrum and gainy/lossy topological edge states with complex energy values. …

Control Of Light-Matter Interaction In 2d Semiconductors, Zheng Sun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis we discuss the control of light matter interaction in low dimensional nanostructure cavity light confining structures. These structures have controllable dispersion properties through design which can be exploited to modify the interaction of light and matter. We will discuss two different types of light confining microcavities: a dielectric cavity and a metal cavity. The specific design of the cavity gives rise to the confinement of the electric field in the center where the nano-materials are placed. In this work, the main material was on the new class of two- dimensional semiconductors of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Due …

The Study Of Plasmonics In Nanohole Metallic Metamaterials, Kieffer J. Davieau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Plasmonics is the study of light-matter interaction. The interaction of incident light (photons) with surface plasmons present in metamaterials results in unique optical properties. Nanohole arrays are a metamaterial consisting of an array of sub-wavelength holes perforated in an optically thin metallic film which resides upon a dielectric material. The interaction of light with the surface plasmons present in the nanohole array leads to extraordinary optical transmission which produces resonance peaks with a higher intensity than the incident light. By changing the physical parameters of the nanohole array, such as hole size and periodicity, the resonance peaks can be tuned …

Quantum Optics Of Polaritonic Nanocomposites, Chris Racknor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, we study the quantum optical interaction in polaritonic nanocomposites. These systems are made by the combination of two or more micro- or nano-scale structures with complementary optical properties, such as polaritonic materials, excitonic materials, photonic crystals (PCs), quantum dots (QDs), waveguides, couplers, metal nanorods (MNRs), bionanoparticles. The nanocomposites systems studied included QDs doped within a polaritonic PC, an excitonic waveguide coupler, and a metamaterial waveguide. Also addressed are systems consisting of MNRs paired with biological labelling dye or QDs.

The application of a strain field, known as the acousto-optic effect, was found to control photon transmission in …

Ultrathin, Ultrasmooth And Low-Loss Silver Films Via Wetting And Annealing, Weiqiang Chen, Kuo-Ping Chen, Mark Daniel Thoreson, Alexander Kildishev, Vladimir M. Shalaev

Weiqiang Chen

We have demonstrated that a thermal annealing treatment can reduce the optical losses in ultrathin, ultrasmooth, silver films deposited on a Ge wetting layer to values as low as the bulk material value and at the same time maintain an ultrasmooth surface. The annealing effect is sensitive to the annealing temperature and time, both of which should be carefully controlled. This annealing treatment is also effective for Ag–SiO2 multilayer composite films.