Photonic Density Of States Research Articles

Theory of phonon-modified quantum dot photoluminescence intensity in structured photonic reservoirs.

The spontaneous emission rate of a quantum dot coupled to a structured photonic reservoir is determined by the frequency dependence of its local density of photon states. Through phonon-dressing, a breakdown of Fermi's golden rule can occur for certain photonic structures whose photon decay time becomes comparable to the longitudinal acoustic phonon decay times. We present a polaron master equation model to calculate the photoluminescence intensity from a coherently excited quantum dot coupled to a structured photonic reservoir. We consider examples of a semiconductor microcavity and a coupled cavity waveguide, and show clear photoluminescence intensity spectral features that contain unique signatures of the interplay between phonon and photon bath coupling.

Optimum Surface Plasmon Excitation and Propagation on Conductive Two-Dimensional Materials and Thin Films

The surface conductivity of two-dimensional (2-D) materials and thin conductive films is considered for surface plasmon (SP) excitation and propagation. It is shown that an ideal surface conductivity exists to maximize the SP field at a given position, based on a tradeoff relating to propagation loss and near-field excitation amplitude associated with the local density of photonic states. Dispersionless and Drude dispersion models are considered, as well as the effect of interband transitions. Simple formulas are presented to obtain a maximal SP field at a given distance from a canonical source. Examples are shown for graphene and thin metal films, and a discussion of the competition between propagation loss and SP excitation is provided.

Double electromagnetically induced transparency with nuclei inside a cavity

We propose a double electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system of nuclei confined inside a low-finesse cavity excited by a soft X-ray radiation source. The quantitative difference in the density of photon states at the node and antinode of the cavity gives rise to subradiant and superradiant kind of states, respectively. When nuclei ensembles are kept at node, node and antinode in the cavity that sustains X-ray radiation field, the configuration behaves like a four-level system with three degenerate upper levels, of which two are metastable, and thus exhibits the nuclear analog of the optical double EIT phenomenon.

Proximity effect assisted absorption enhancement in thin film with locally clustered nanoholes.

We focus on the light-trapping characteristics of a thin film with locally clustered nanoholes (NHs), considering that the clustering effect is usually encountered in preparing the nanostructures. Our full-wave finite-element simulation indicates that an intentionally introduced clustering effect could be employed for improving the light-trapping performance of the nanostructured thin film. For a 100 nm thick amorphous silicon film, an optimal clustering design with NH diameter of 100 nm is able to double the integrated optical absorption over the solar spectrum, compared to the planar counterpart, as well as show much improved optical performance over that of the nonclustered setup. A further insight into the underlying physics explains the outstanding light-trapping capability in terms of the increased available modes, a stronger power coupling efficiency, a higher fraction of electric field concentrated in absorbable material, and a higher density of photon states.

Local field corrections to the spontaneous emission in arrays of Si nanocrystals

We present a theory of the local field corrections to the spontaneous emission rate for the array of silicon nanocrystals in silicon dioxide. An analytical result for the Purcell factor is obtained. We demonstrate that the local-field corrections are sensitive to the volume fill factor of the nanocrystals in the sample and are suppressed for large values of the fill factor. The local-field corrections and the photonic density of states are shown to be described by two different effective permittivities: the harmonic mean between the nanocrystal and the matrix permittivities and the Maxwell–Garnett permittivity.

Active hyperbolic metamaterials: enhanced spontaneous emission and light extraction

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) have recently garnered much attention because they possess the potential for broadband manipulation of the photonic density of states and subwavelength light confinement. These exceptional properties arise due to the excitation of electromagnetic states with high momentum (high-k modes). However, a major hindrance to practical applications of HMMs is the difficulty in coupling light out of these modes because they become evanescent at the surface of the metamaterial. Here we report the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of simultaneous spontaneous emission enhancement and outcoupling of high-k modes in an active HMM using a high-index-contrast bullseye grating. Quantum dots embedded inside the metamaterial are used for local excitation of high-k modes. This demonstration could pave the way for the development of photonic devices such as single-photon sources, ultrafast LEDs, and true nanoscale lasers.

Thermal hyperconductivity: Radiative energy transport in hyperbolic media

We develop a theoretical description of radiative thermal conductivity in hyperbolic metamaterials. We demonstrate a dramatic enhancement of the radiative thermal transport due to the super-singularity of the photonic density of states in hyperbolic media, leading to the radiative heat conductivity which can be comparable to the non-radiative contribution.

Super-collimation of the radiation by a point source in a uniaxial wire medium

We investigate the radiation properties of a short horizontal dipole embedded in a uniaxial wire medium. It is shown that the uniaxial wire medium enables a super-collimation of the dipole radiation such that the radiation pattern has a singularity and the radiated fields are non-diffractive in the broadside direction. We derive a closed analytical formula for the power radiated by the dipole in the wire medium. Our theory demonstrates that as a consequence of the ultrahigh density of photonic states of the nanowire array, the power radiated by the dipole is strongly enhanced as compared to the power that would be emitted in the dielectric host with no nanowires.

Adiabatically tapered hyperbolic metamaterials for dispersion control of high-k waves.

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) have shown great promise in the optical and quantum communities due to their extremely large, broadband photonic density of states. This feature is a direct consequence of supporting photonic modes with unbounded k-vectors. While these materials support such high-k waves, they are intrinsically confined inside the HMM and cannot propagate into the far-field, rendering them impractical for many applications. Here, we demonstrate how the magnitude of k-vectors can be engineered as the propagating radiation passes through media of differing dispersion relations (including type II HMMs and dielectrics) in the in-plane direction. The total outcoupling efficiency of waves in the in-plane direction is shown to be on average 2 orders of magnitude better than standard out-of-plane outcoupling methods. In addition, the outcoupling can be further enhanced using a proposed tapered HMM waveguide that is fabricated using a shadowed glancing angle deposition technique; thereby proving the feasibility of the proposed device. Applications for this technique include converting high-k waves to low-k waves that can be out-coupled into free-space and creating extremely high-k waves that are quickly quenched. Most importantly, this method of in-plane outcoupling acts as a bridge through which waves can cross between the regimes of low-k waves in classical dielectric materials and the high-k waves in HMMs with strongly reduced reflective losses.

Theory and design of quantum light sources from quantum dots embedded in semiconductor-nanowire photonic-crystal systems

We introduce a new platform for realizing on-chip quantum electrodynamics using photonic crystal waveguide structures comprised of periodic nanowire arrays with embedded semiconductor quantum dots to act as quantum light sources. These nanowire-based structures, which can now be fabricated with excellent precision, are found to produce waveguide Purcell factors exceeding 100 and on-chip beta factors up to 99%. We investigate the fundamental optical properties of photonic crystal waveguides and finite-size structures using both photonic band structure calculations and rigorous Green function computations which allows us to obtain the modal properties and the local density of photon states. A comparison with slab-based photonic crystals is also made and we a highlight key advantages in the nanowire system, including the potential to minimize extrinsic scattering losses and produce high theoretical Purcell factors and beta-factors on-chip. We also demonstrate that these structures exhibit rich photonic Lamb shifts over broadband frequencies.

Purcell effect and luminescent downshifting in silicon nanocrystals coated back-contact solar cells

Silicon nanocrystals show a significant shift between the strong absorption in the blue–ultraviolet region and their characteristic red–near-infrared emission as well as space separated-quantum cutting when short wavelength photons are absorbed. These two effects can be used to increase the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. We fabricated high quality interdigitated back-contact crystalline silicon solar cells in an industrial pilot line and coated them with optimized silicon nanocrystals layers in a cost effective way. Here we demonstrate an increase of 0.8% of the power conversion efficiency of the interdigitated back-contact cell by the silicon nanocrystals layer. In addition, we prove that this increase is due to a combination of a better surface passivation, a better optical coating, and of the luminescent downshifting effect. Moreover we demonstrated that the engineering of the local density of photon states, thanks to the Purcell effect, is instrumental in order to exploit this effect.

Inhibition and enhancement of the spontaneous emission of quantum dots in micropillar cavities with radial-distributed Bragg reflectors.

We present a micropillar cavity where nondesired radial emission is inhibited. The photonic confinement in such a structure is improved by implementation of an additional concentric radial-distributed Bragg reflector. Such a reflector increases the reflectivity in all directions perpendicular to the micropillar axis from a typical value of 15-31% to above 98%. An inhibition of the spontaneous emission of off-resonant excitonic states of quantum dots embedded in the microcavity is revealed by time-resolved experiments. It proves a decreased density of photonic states related to unwanted radial leakage of photons out of the micropillar. For on-resonance conditions, we find that the dot emission rate is increased, evidencing the Purcell enhancement of spontaneous emission. The proposed design can increase the efficiency of single-photon sources and bring to micropillar cavities the functionalities based on lengthened decay times.

Photonic density of states of cholesteric liquid crystal cells

Using the exact analytical expressions for the reflection and transmission matrices for the finite thickness cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layer, we calculated its photonic density of states (PDS) of the eigen polarizations (EPs). We investigated the influence of absorption and gain, as well as the CLC cell thickness and CLC local dielectric anisotropy on PDS. We presented the full picture of distribution of total field in the CLC layer and outside it for two EPs. The possibility of connections between the PDS and the density of the light energy accumulated in the medium was investigated, and it was shown that these characteristics had analogous spectra and, besides, the influences of the problem parameters on these characteristics were also analogous. We showed that there existed a critical value of the parameter characterizing the gain beyond which the lasing mode was quenched and the feedback vanished. We showed that in the presence of gain there existed a critical value of numbers of pitches in the CLC layer beyond which the lasing mode was again quenched and the feedback vanished, too. It is shown that the subject system can work as a low-threshold laser or a multi-position trigger.

Hyperbolic metamaterials based on quantum-dot plasmon-resonator nanocomposites.

We theoretically demonstrate that nanocomposites made of colloidal semiconductor quantum dot monolayers placed between metal nanoparticle monolayers can function as multilayer hyperbolic metamaterials. Depending on the thickness of the spacer between the quantum dot and nanoparticle layers, the effective permittivity tensor of the nanocomposite is shown to become indefinite, resulting in increased photonic density of states and strong enhancement of quantum dot luminescence. This explains the results of recent experiments [T. Ozel et al., ACS Nano 5, 1328 (2011)] and confirms that hyperbolic metamaterials are capable of increasing the radiative decay rate of emission centers inside them. The proposed theoretical framework can also be used to design quantum-dot/nanoplasmonic composites with optimized luminescence enhancement.

Self-assembled tunable photonic hyper-crystals.

We demonstrate a novel artificial optical material, the “photonic hyper-crystal”, which combines the most interesting features of hyperbolic metamaterials and photonic crystals. Similar to hyperbolic metamaterials, photonic hyper-crystals exhibit broadband divergence in their photonic density of states due to the lack of usual diffraction limit on the photon wave vector. On the other hand, similar to photonic crystals, hyperbolic dispersion law of extraordinary photons is modulated by forbidden gaps near the boundaries of photonic Brillouin zones. Three dimensional self-assembly of photonic hyper-crystals has been achieved by application of external magnetic field to a cobalt nanoparticle-based ferrofluid. Unique spectral properties of photonic hyper-crystals lead to extreme sensitivity of the material to monolayer coatings of cobalt nanoparticles, which should find numerous applications in biological and chemical sensing.

Quantum topological transition in hyperbolic metamaterials based on high Tc superconductors

Hyperbolic metamaterials are known to exhibit a transition in the topology of the photon iso-frequency surface from a closed ellipsoid to an open hyperboloid, resulting in a considerable increase of the photonic density of states. This topological transition may also be described as a change of metric signature of the effective optical space. Here we demonstrate that high Tc superconductors exhibit hyperbolic metamaterial behavior in the far infrared and THz frequency ranges. In the THz range the hyperbolic behavior occurs only in the normal state, while no propagating photon modes exist in the superconducting state. Thus, a quantum topological transition may be observed for THz photons at zero temperature as a function of the external magnetic field, in which the effective Minkowski spacetime arises in the mixed state of the superconductor at some critical value of the external magnetic field. Nucleation of effective Minkowski spacetime occurs via the formation of quantized Abrikosov vortices.

Blue shift of spontaneous emission in hyperbolic metamaterial.

Spontaneous emission is one of the most fundamental quantum phenomena in optics. Following the seminal work of Purcell and in agreement with the Fermi's Golden Rule, its rate can be controlled with the photonic density of states (PDOS). In recent years, this effect has been demonstrated in metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion – highly anisotropic composite materials, which have a broad-band singularity of the density of photonic states. At this time, we show that hyperbolic metamaterials can control spontaneous emission spectra as well. Experimentally, DCM laser dye has been embedded into lamellar metal/dielectric metamaterial. The observed 18 nm blue shift of emission is explained by strong dispersion of the density of photonic states. On the other hand, practically no spectral shift has been observed in the excitation spectra of the same dye. This suggests that the effect of PDOS on spontaneous emission is very different from its effect on excitation and absorption.

Dependence of the spontaneous emission of singlet oxygen on the refractive index and molecular polarizability of the surrounding dielectric media

The rate constants (kr) for singlet oxygen O2 (a1Δg) luminescence in several selected solvents and in binary solvent mixture (acetone-toluene) were measured. All data have been normalized such that krrel = 1.0 in toluene. It has been demonstrated that the changes in these rate constants were caused both by optical properties of a medium (the local field factor and density of photon states) and by an inherent property of the emitter of 1O2 (the square of transition moment). In its turn, the value of the transition moment is directly proportional to molecular polarizability of the medium molecules.

Photonic Density of States of a Stack of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal and Isotropic Medium Layers

We calculated the photonic density of states (PDS) of the eigen polarizations in the system composed of a stack of layers of a cholesteric liquid crystal and an isotropic medium. The reflection spectra and PDS peculiarities, as well as the peculiarities of absorption and emittance were investigated. We obtained the dependences of the PDS as a function of parameters characterizing absorption and gain. It was shown that the subject system can be used in lasers for obtaining low threshold lasers with the emittance wavelength tunable in wide ranges. The system also can work as a multi-position trigger.

Epitaxial superlattices with titanium nitride as a plasmonic component for optical hyperbolic metamaterials

Titanium nitride (TiN) is a plasmonic material having optical properties resembling gold. Unlike gold, however, TiN is complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatible, mechanically strong, and thermally stable at higher temperatures. Additionally, TiN exhibits low-index surfaces with surface energies that are lower than those of the noble metals which facilitates the growth of smooth, ultrathin crystalline films. Such films are crucial in constructing low-loss, high-performance plasmonic and metamaterial devices including hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs). HMMs have been shown to exhibit exotic optical properties, including extremely high broadband photonic densities of states (PDOS), which are useful in quantum plasmonic applications. However, the extent to which the exotic properties of HMMs can be realized has been seriously limited by fabrication constraints and material properties. Here, we address these issues by realizing an epitaxial superlattice as an HMM. The superlattice consists of ultrasmooth layers as thin as 5 nm and exhibits sharp interfaces which are essential for high-quality HMM devices. Our study reveals that such a TiN-based superlattice HMM provides a higher PDOS enhancement than gold- or silver-based HMMs.