Classical and quantum optics of hyperbolic metamaterials

Zubin Jacob, Purdue University

Abstract

Nanotechnology has paved the way for artificial materials which have electromagnetic, mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties beyond those which are ordinarily found in nature. Photonic nanomaterials hold the promise:- to usher in a new generation of photonic devices with imaging capabilities well beyond the reach of conventional optics, to drive CMOS compatible nanophotonics research for sustaining Moores law and even address pressing societal needs of solar energy harvesting. The central theme of this thesis is the understanding of the essential physics for new devices based on nanofabricated metamaterials, where the bulk macroscopic material properties are governed and tailored at will, according to the constituent nanostructured building blocks. The particular class of metamaterials considered are uniaxial media with an extreme dielectric anisotropy i.e. materials with dielectric constants of opposite signs in the dielectric tensor. This gives rise to a hyperbolic dispersion relation for extraordinary propagating waves in the medium. We unravel a unique singularity in the photonic density of states (PDOS) of such hyperbolic metamaterials. The remarkable property which sets it apart from other photonic systems is the broad spectral bandwidth in which the PDOS diverges, paving the way for a new approach to controlling broadband light-matter interaction. We use the unique electromagnetic metamaterial states that cause the divergence in the PDOS for two specific device applications: subdiffraction imaging and quantum optics. We solve the long standing problem of the fundamental diffraction limit which plagues all conventional optical imaging systems using a device called the hyperlens, comprising of nanostructured hyperbolic metamaterials. The hyperlens produces magnified images of subwavelength objects in the far-field, promising to revolutionize applications such as nano-bio imaging and subdiffraction lithography. We show that the hyperlens can be understood by methods of geometrical optics inspite of its nanoscale size and that it also supports Dyakonov plasmons, a special case of elusive Dyakonov surface states. Another direction for applications is quantum optics utilizing hyperbolic metamaterials. We show that the spontaneous emission from an atom or artificial atoms such as quantum dots can be enhanced and directional in the vicinity of such hyperbolic metamaterials leading to a metamaterial based broadband Purcell effect.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Narimanov, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Electrical engineering|Nanotechnology|Optics

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