Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2016.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other Authors: Marin Soljačić.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105643
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author Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author2 Marin Soljačić.
author_facet Marin Soljačić.
Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author_sort Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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description Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2016.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1056432019-04-10T11:19:59Z Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Marin Soljačić. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Physics. Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 75-80). Photonic crystal slabs are a versatile and important platform for molding the flow of light. In this thesis, we consider ways to control the emission of light from photonic crystal slab structures, specifically focusing on directional, asymmetric emission, and on emitting light with interesting topological features. First, we develop a general coupled-mode theory formalism to derive bounds on the asymmetric decay rates to top and bottom of a photonic crystal slab, for a resonance with arbitrary in-plane wavevector. We then employ this formalism to inversion symmetric structures, and show through numerical simulations that asymmetries of top-down decay rates exceeding 104 can be achieved by tuning the resonance frequency to coincide with the perfectly transmitting Fabry-Perot frequency. The emission direction can also be rapidly switched from top to bottom by tuning the wavevector or frequency. We then consider the generation of Mobius strips of light polarization, i.e. vector beams with half-integer polarization winding, from photonic crystal slabs. We show that a quadratic degeneracy formed by symmetry considerations can be split into a pair of Dirac points, which can be further split into four exceptional points. Through calculations of an analytical two-band model and numerical simulations of two-dimensional photonic crystals and photonic crystal slabs, we demonstrate the existence of isofrequency contours encircling two exceptional points, and show the half-integer polarization winding along these isofrequency contours. We further propose a realistic photonic crystal slab structure and experimental setup to verify the existence of such Mobius strips of light polarization. by Hengyun Zhou. S.B. 2016-12-05T19:56:13Z 2016-12-05T19:56:13Z 2016 2016 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105643 963842232 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 80 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Physics.
Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title_full Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title_fullStr Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title_full_unstemmed Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title_short Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges
title_sort tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs from directional emission to topological half charges
topic Physics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105643
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