Research Website

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~shalaev/

Keywords

Nanophotonics, plasmonics, negative refraction, metamaterials, computational electrodynamics

Presentation Type

Poster

Research Abstract

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 common plasmonic materials is available either within the tool, or the user can describe a custom medium with the parameters of a Drude-Lorentz dispersion model. Active medium is described with a four-level system.

Thus, a single layer can incorporate any of these material kinds or blend them together via segments, for example, to simulate gain assisted compensation of ohmic losses in metals. This is a typical phenomenon that tends to limit the scope of applications of materials with negative refraction. Multiple layers then can be stacked on top of one another leading to a wide range of subwavelength engineered effective media (metamaterials) with new optical properties. This multilayer can represent a hyperbolic metamaterial or a photonic crystal with potential applications in imaging beyond diffraction limit, high optical absorption, low surface scattering in photovoltaic devices, and surface enhanced spectroscopy and sensing. Predictive modeling tools for plasmonic structures with gain pave the way for developing efficient nanolasers and spasers.

Results of each simulation may include absorption, transmission, reflection spectra of the scattered beam, and time-resolved evolution of populations of the four-level gain system. Material geometry, the results and the input parameters are available for export and import back into the tool.

Session Track

Energy

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Aug 4th, 12:00 AM

PhotonicsTD-2D: Modeling Light Scattering in Periodic Multilayer Photonic Structures

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 common plasmonic materials is available either within the tool, or the user can describe a custom medium with the parameters of a Drude-Lorentz dispersion model. Active medium is described with a four-level system.

Thus, a single layer can incorporate any of these material kinds or blend them together via segments, for example, to simulate gain assisted compensation of ohmic losses in metals. This is a typical phenomenon that tends to limit the scope of applications of materials with negative refraction. Multiple layers then can be stacked on top of one another leading to a wide range of subwavelength engineered effective media (metamaterials) with new optical properties. This multilayer can represent a hyperbolic metamaterial or a photonic crystal with potential applications in imaging beyond diffraction limit, high optical absorption, low surface scattering in photovoltaic devices, and surface enhanced spectroscopy and sensing. Predictive modeling tools for plasmonic structures with gain pave the way for developing efficient nanolasers and spasers.

Results of each simulation may include absorption, transmission, reflection spectra of the scattered beam, and time-resolved evolution of populations of the four-level gain system. Material geometry, the results and the input parameters are available for export and import back into the tool.

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/surf/2016/presentations/138