optics
My research
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Metamaterials are periodic structures of one or more guest materials embedded in a host material. Just as the optical properties of homogeneous dielectrics arise from the nature and nanometer-scale structure its atoms; metamaterials derive their properties from the character and sub-wavelength unit cell structure of its component materials. At wavelengths much larger than its unit cell size, the structure can be assigned properties of homogeneous dielectrics such as electric permeability and refractive index. |
My goal is to design a low-loss metamaterial with a refractive index less than one at optical wavelengths. The lowest refractive index of any transparent homogeneous material is 1.3. Hence, such a material should interest both optical physicists and engineers. It challenges physicists to reexamine the definitions of refractive index. For engineers, it makes possible devices based on a new phenomenon, and improvements for existing devices that depend on the refractive indices of their component materials. |
Links
· Rafael Piestun: my advisor
· Three-Dimensional Nanomanufacturing Processes for Nanophotonic Devices and Systems
(The grant that pays me)
· 2004 CU Engineering Brochure
· Translight: a fantastic tool for modeling photonic crystals, by Andrew L. Reynolds.
Publications and Papers
Dissertation: Ultralow refractive index metamaterials and band gap structures at optical wavelengths, 2005
Modification of Opal Photonic
Chem. Mater. 2006, 18, 3562-3570. [pdf]
Dynamic properties of photonic crystals and their effective refractive index,
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 22, 9, 2018-2026.
“How effective is the effective refractive index?,” CLEO/QELS 2005.
“Dynamic Properties of Finite Photonic
A New Path: Ultralow-index metamaterials present new possibilities for controlling light propagation, OE Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 1, Jan. 2005.
Waveguiding light in air with ultralow index metamaterials, Proc. SPIE Vol. 5515, p. 180-186, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices; (2004)
Waveguiding in air by total external reflection from ultralow index metamaterials, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 1 (2004). [pdf]
“Total external reflection from metamaterials with ultralow refractive index,” Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 20, 12, (2003).[pdf]
Metamaterials with ultralow index of refraction: properties and applications, Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 5218, 166 (2003).
“Optical properties of artificial dielectrics with refractive index less than unity,” in OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics, Integrated Photonics Research, July 2002.
“Total external reflection at optical wavelengths, in OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics Vol. 75, Diffractive Optics and Micro-Optics, Optical Society of America, June 2002.
Comment: From the paper below, I’ve added many rows of wires to that one row, and changed the material from gold to silver, and calculated the refractive index, which connects with the 1999 paper. The trend in this, and the two papers below was unintentional, but odd.
Polarizers for soft X-Ray light, spring 2001, class paper.
Comment: The best type is an array of wires spaced less than a wavelength apart. So I’ve added a one-row wire array to the air [pdf].
How to Measure the Refractive Index of Air, Final Paper, ECEN 5154, Introduction to Opto-Electronics (Fall 1999). [pdf]
Comment: I start measuring the refractive index of air…see comment above.
Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Formation via UV-photodissociation of Ozone: Senior Honors Thesis,
