Optics Commons^™

Optimizing Switching Of Non-Linear Properties With Hyperbolic Metamaterials, James A. Ethridge, John G. Jones, Manuel R. Ferdinandus, Michael J. Havrilla, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

Hyperbolic metamaterials have been demonstrated to have special potential in their linear response, but the extent of their non-linear response has not been extensively modeled or measured. In this work, novel non-linear behavior of an ITO/SiO₂ layered hyperbolic metamaterial is modeled and experimentally confirmed, specifically a change in the sign of the non-linear absorption with intensity. This behavior is tunable and can be achieved with a simple one-dimensional layered design. Fabrication was performed with physical vapor deposition, and measurements were conducted using the Z-scan technique. Potential applications include tunable optical switches, optical limiters, and tunable components of laser sources.

Optical Signal Processing With Discrete-Space Metamaterials, Mohammad Moein Moeini

Wayne State University Dissertations

As digital circuits are approaching the limits of Moore’s law, a great deal of efforthas been directed to alternative computing approaches. Among them, the old concept of optical signal processing (OSP) has attracted attention, revisited in the light of metamaterials and nano-photonics. This approach has been successful in realizing basic mathematical operations, such as derivatives and integrals, but it is difficult to be applied to more complex ones. Inspired by digital filters, we propose a radically new OSP approach, able to realize arbitrary mathematical operations over a nano-photonic platform. We demonstrate this concept for the case of spatial differentiation, image …

A Hybrid Achromatic Metalens, Fatih Balli, Mansoor A. Sultan, Sarah K. Lami, J. Todd Hastings

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Metalenses, ultra-thin optical elements that focus light using subwavelength structures, have been the subject of a number of recent investigations. Compared to their refractive counterparts, metalenses offer reduced size and weight, and new functionality such as polarization control. However, metalenses that correct chromatic aberration also suffer from markedly reduced focusing efficiency. Here we introduce a Hybrid Achromatic Metalens (HAML) that overcomes this trade-off and offers improved focusing efficiency over a broad wavelength range from 1000-1800 nm. HAMLs can be designed by combining recursive ray-tracing and simulated phase libraries rather than computationally intensive global search algorithms. Moreover, HAMLs can be fabricated …

3d Plasmonic Design Approach For Efficient Transmissive Huygens Metasurfaces, Bryan M. Adomanis, D. Bruce Burckel, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

In this paper we present a design concept for 3D plasmonic scatterers as high- efficiency transmissive metasurface (MS) building blocks. A genetic algorithm (GA) routine partitions the faces of the walls inside an open cavity into a M x N grid of voxels which can be either covered with metal or left bare, and optimizes the distribution of metal coverage needed to generate electric and magnetic modes of equal strength with a targeted phase delay (Φt) at the design wavelength. Even though the electric and magnetic modes can be more complicated than typical low order modes, with their spectral overlap …

Design, Fabrication, And Characterization Of Multilayer Hyperbolic Metamaterials, James Dilts

Graduate Theses - Physics and Optical Engineering

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) show extreme anisotropy, acting as metals and dielectrics along orthogonal directions. They are designed using the effective medium theory (EMT) and can be fabricated using standard semiconductor processing techniques. Current techniques used to characterize the optical behavior of HMMs have a high complexity or are unable to robustly determine the complex permittivity tensor. We describe the details of a procedure to obtain a very low mean-squared-error (MSE) for extraction of permittivity from hyperbolic metamaterials using spectroscopic ellipsometry. We have verified our procedure by fabricating three different samples of various materials and fill factors designed to have a …

Quartic Metamaterials: The Inverse Method, Perturbations, And Bulk Optical Neutrality, Thomas Mulkey

Honors College Theses

A primary goal of photonics is designing material structures that support predetermined electromagnetic field distributions. We have developed an inverse method to determine material parameters for a quartic metamaterial from six desired plane waves. This work inspired us to study how perturbations to the parameters can result in optical neutrality.

Control Of Energy Transfer And Molecular Energetics Using Photonic Nanostructures, Rahul Deshmukh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the last three decades, the design and fabrication of different types of photonic nanostructures have allowed us to control and enhance the interaction of light (or photons) with matter (or excitons). In this work, we demonstrate the use of three different nanostructures to control different material properties. The design and fabrication of the nanostructures is discussed along with the results obtained using characterization techniques of angle-resolved white light reflectivity and transmission, and time-resolved and steady-state photoluminescence experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of Optical Topological Transitions (OTT) in metamaterials to show enhanced efficiency in the non-radiative transfer of energy …

Wavelength-Selective Metamaterial Absorber And Emitter, Zhigang Li

Doctoral Dissertations

"Electromagnetic absorbers and emitters have been attracting interest in lots of fields, which are significantly revitalized because of the novel properties brought by the development of the metamaterials, the artificially designed materials. Metamaterials broadens the approaches to design the electromagnetic absorbers and emitters, making it possible to obtain the perfect absorption or emission at the wavelengths covering a wide range. Metamaterial absorbers and emitters are promising for various applications, including solar thermal-photovoltaics and thermal-photovoltaics for energy harvesting, chemical and biomedical sensors, nanoscale imaging and color printing. This work focuses on three aspects (materials, structures and design methods) to improve the …

Characterization Of Coupled Gold Nanoparticles In A Sparsely Populated Square Lattice, Roy Truett French Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal nanoparticles deposited in regular arrays spaced at optical wavelengths support a resonance due to a coherent coupling between localized surface plasmon mode and lattice diffraction allowing for engineering of tunable devices for use in biological sensors, nanoantennae, and enhanced spectroscopy. Techniques such as electron beam lithography, focused ion beam lithography, nanosphere lithography, and nanoimprint lithography are used for fabrication but are limited by cost, device throughput, and small deposition. Polymer soft lithography and continuous dewetting of particles is a potentially viable alternative showing promise in all of those areas. This thesis developed the fabrication of a refined hydrophilic nanoimprinted …

Interference Of Light In Multilayer Metasurfaces: Perfect Absorber And Antireflection Coating, Khagendra Prasad Bhattarai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We have studied several metamaterials structures with multiple layers by explaining them theoretically and verifying experimentally. The engineered structures we have designed work either as a perfect absorber or antireflection coating. The multilayer model as we call it Three Layer Model (TLM) has been developed, which gives the total reflection and transmission as a function of reflection and transmission of individual layers. By manipulating the amplitude and phase of the reflection and the transmission of the individual layers, we can get the required functionality of the optoelectronic devices. To get zero reflection in the both perfect absorber and the antireflection …

Optical Forces Generated By Plasmonic Nanostructures, Matthew A. Moocarme

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For millennia, scientists have sought to uncover the secrets of what holds the world together. Optical physicists are often at the forefront, unraveling material properties through investigations of light-matter interactions. As the field has progressed, the smallest unit at which matter can be probed and manipulated has subsequently decreased. The resulting sub-field nanophotonics- which reflects the processing of light at the nanoscale- has blossomed into a vast design space for both applied and theoretical researchers. Plasmonics, the phenomena by which the electron-density of a material oscillates in response to incident electromagnetic radiation, is a subject that has excited nanophotonics researchers …

Control Of Spontanous Emission From Quantum Emitters Using Hyperbolic Metamaterial Substrates, Tal Galfsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) are so named for possessing a hyperboloid-shaped dispersion which gives rise to a large photonic density of states. Quantum emitters placed inside or in the near-field of a HMM have been shown to exhibit strong enhancement of spontaneous emission due to the increase in available states. This thesis focuses on enhancing spontaneous emission of quantum emitters in optical frequencies by utilizing multilayered metal/dielectric composites that form these highly anisotropic metamaterials. In conjunction with the enhanced decay rate we experimentally demonstrate two methods for shaping and directing radiation trapped in the HMM into free space by employing a …

Photonicstd-2d: Modeling Light Scattering In Periodic Multilayer Photonic Structures, Alexey Bondarev, Shaimaa Azzam, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev, Alexander V. Kildishev

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Efficient modeling of electromagnetic processes in optical and plasmonic metamaterials is important for enabling new and exciting ways to manipulate light for advanced applications. In this work, we put together a tool for numerical simulation of propagation of normally incident light through a nanostructured multilayer composite material. The user builds a unit cell of a given material layer-by-layer starting from a substrate up to a superstrate, splitting each layer further into segments. The segments are defined by width and material -- dielectric, metal or active medium. Simulations are performed with the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. A database of …

Nanophotonics For Dark Materials, Filters, And Optical Magnetism, Mengren Man

Open Access Dissertations

Research on nanophotonic structures for three application areas is described, a near perfect optical absorber based on a graphene/dielectric stack, an ultraviolet bandpass filter formed with an aluminum/dielectric stack, and structures exhibiting homogenizable magnetic properties at infrared frequencies. The graphene stack can be treated as a effective, homogenized medium that can be designed to reflect little light and absorb an astoundingly high amount per unit thickness, making it an ideal dark material and providing a new avenue for photonic devices based on two-dimensional materials. Another material stack arrangement with thin layers of metal and insulator forms a multi-cavity filter that …

The Study Of Nano-Optics In Hybrid Systems, Marek J. Brzozowski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, we study the quantum light-matter interaction in polaritonic heterostructures. These systems are made by combining various nanocomponents, such as quantum dots, graphene films, metallic nanoparticles and metamaterials. These heterostructures are used to develop new optoelectronic devices due to the interaction between nanocomposites.

Photoluminescence quenching and absorption spectrum are determined and an explanatory theory is developed for these polaritonic heterostructures. Photoluminescence quenching is evaluated for a graphene, metallic nanoparticle and quantum dot system. It is shown that average distance between nanocomposites or concentration of nanocomposites affect the output these system produced. Photoluminescence quenching was also evaluated for a …

Control Of Light-Matter Interaction Via Dispersion Engineering, Harish Natarajan Swaha Krishnamoorthy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis describes the design, fabrication and characterization of certain nanostructures to engineer light-matter interaction. These materials have peculiar dispersion properties owing to their structural design, which is exploited to control spontaneous emission properties of emitters such as quantum dots and dye molecules. We will discuss two classes of materials based on the size of their unit cell compared to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation they interact with. The first class are hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM) composed of alternate layers of a metal and a dielectric of thicknesses much smaller than the wave- length. Using a HMM composed of silver …

Large Area Conformal Infrared Frequency Selective Surfaces, Jeffrey D'Archangel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Frequency selective surfaces (FSS) were originally developed for electromagnetic filtering applications at microwave frequencies. Electron-beam lithography has enabled the extension of FSS to infrared frequencies; however, these techniques create sample sizes that are seldom appropriate for real world applications due to the size and rigidity of the substrate. A new method of fabricating large area conformal infrared FSS is introduced, which involves releasing miniature FSS arrays from a substrate for implementation in a coating. A selective etching process is proposed and executed to create FSS particles from crossed-dipole and square-loop FSS arrays. When the fill-factor of the particles in the …

Negative Index Metamaterials Based On Metal-Dielectric Nanocomposites For Imaging Applications, L. Menon, W. T. Lu, A. L. Friedman, S. P. Bennett, D. Heiman, S. Sridhar

Srinivas Sridhar

Negative index metamaterials are demonstrated based on metal-dielectric nanocomposites prepared using a versatile bottom-up nanofabrication approach. The method involves the incorporation of vertically aligned metal nanowires such as Au and Ag inside dielectric aluminum oxide nanotemplates. Optical absorbance measurements show resonance peaks corresponding to the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon modes. A quantitative model based on effective medium theory is in excellent agreement with experimental data, and points to specific composite configurations and wavelength regimes where such structures can have applications as negative refraction media for imaging.

Negative Index Metamaterials Based On Metal-Dielectric Nanocomposites For Imaging Applications, L. Menon, W. T. Lu, A. L. Friedman, S. P. Bennett, D. Heiman, S. Sridhar

Donald Heiman

Negative index metamaterials are demonstrated based on metal-dielectric nanocomposites prepared using a versatile bottom-up nanofabrication approach. The method involves the incorporation of vertically aligned metal nanowires such as Au and Ag inside dielectric aluminum oxide nanotemplates. Optical absorbance measurements show resonance peaks corresponding to the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon modes. A quantitative model based on effective medium theory is in excellent agreement with experimental data, and points to specific composite configurations and wavelength regimes where such structures can have applications as negative refraction media for imaging.

Negative Index Metamaterials Based On Metal-Dielectric Nanocomposites For Imaging Applications, L. Menon, W. T. Lu, A. L. Friedman, S. P. Bennett, D. Heiman, S. Sridhar

Latika Menon

Negative index metamaterials are demonstrated based on metal-dielectric nanocomposites prepared using a versatile bottom-up nanofabrication approach. The method involves the incorporation of vertically aligned metal nanowires such as Au and Ag inside dielectric aluminum oxide nanotemplates. Optical absorbance measurements show resonance peaks corresponding to the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon modes. A quantitative model based on effective medium theory is in excellent agreement with experimental data, and points to specific composite configurations and wavelength regimes where such structures can have applications as negative refraction media for imaging.