Geometric representation of adiabatic distributed-Bragg-reflectors and broadening the photonic bandgap

Abstract

Adiabatic following has been an widely-employed technique for achieving near-complete population transfer in a ‘two-level’ quantum mechanical system. The theoretical basis, however, could be generalized to a broad class of systems exhibiting SU(2) symmetry. In the present work, we present an analogy of population transfer dynamics of a two-level atomic system with that of light propagation in a classical ‘one-dimensional’ photonic crystal, commonly known as distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR). This formalism facilitates in adapting the idea of adiabatic following, more precisely the rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) which is usually encountered in a broad class of quantum-mechanical systems. We present a chirped DBR configuration in which the adiabatic constraints are satisfied by virtue of optimally chirping the DBR. The reflection spectrum of the configuration exhibit broadening of photonic bandgap (PBG) in addition to a varying degree of suppression of sharp reflection peaks in the transmission band. The intermodal coupling between counter-propagating modes as well as their phase-mismatch, for the DBR configuration, exhibits a longitudinal variation which is usually observed in ‘Allen-Eberly’ scheme of adiabatic population transfer in two-level atomic systems.