Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook
Humankind has long endeavored to control the propagation direction of light. Since time immemorial, shades, lenses, and mirrors have been used to control the flow of light. In modern society, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, the control of light is moving toward devices at micrometer an...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Institute of Physics (AIP)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108437 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-3756 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-5831 |
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| author | Shen, Yichen Hsu, Chia Wei Yeng, Yi Xiang Joannopoulos, John D. Soljačić, Marin Yeng, YiXiang Joannopoulos, John Soljacic, Marin |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Shen, Yichen Hsu, Chia Wei Yeng, Yi Xiang Joannopoulos, John D. Soljačić, Marin Yeng, YiXiang Joannopoulos, John Soljacic, Marin |
| author_sort | Shen, Yichen |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Humankind has long endeavored to control the propagation direction of light. Since time immemorial, shades, lenses, and mirrors have been used to control the flow of light. In modern society, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, the control of light is moving toward devices at micrometer and even nanometer scales. At such scales, traditional devices based on geometrical optics reach their fundamental diffraction limits and cease to work. Nano-photonics, on the other hand, has attracted wide attention from researchers, especially in the last decade, due to its ability to manipulate light at the nanoscale. This review focuses on the nano-photonics systems that aim to select light based on its propagation direction. In the first half of this review, we survey the literature and the current state of the art focused on enabling optical broadband angular selectivity. The mechanisms we review can be classified into three main categories: (i) microscale geometrical optics, (ii) multilayer birefringent materials, and (iii) Brewster modes in plasmonic systems, photonic crystals, and metamaterials. In the second half, we present two categories of potential applications for broadband angularly selective systems. The first category aims at enhancing the efficiency of solar energy harvesting, through photovoltaic process or solar thermal process. The second category aims at enhancing light extracting efficiency and detection sensitivity. Finally, we discuss the most prominent challenges in broadband angular selectivity and some prospects on how to solve these challenges. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:03:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/108437 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:03:46Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Institute of Physics (AIP) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1084372022-09-26T10:12:26Z Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook Shen, Yichen Hsu, Chia Wei Yeng, Yi Xiang Joannopoulos, John D. Soljačić, Marin Yeng, YiXiang Joannopoulos, John Soljacic, Marin Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics Shen, Yichen Hsu, Chia Wei Yeng, YiXiang Joannopoulos, John Soljacic, Marin Humankind has long endeavored to control the propagation direction of light. Since time immemorial, shades, lenses, and mirrors have been used to control the flow of light. In modern society, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, the control of light is moving toward devices at micrometer and even nanometer scales. At such scales, traditional devices based on geometrical optics reach their fundamental diffraction limits and cease to work. Nano-photonics, on the other hand, has attracted wide attention from researchers, especially in the last decade, due to its ability to manipulate light at the nanoscale. This review focuses on the nano-photonics systems that aim to select light based on its propagation direction. In the first half of this review, we survey the literature and the current state of the art focused on enabling optical broadband angular selectivity. The mechanisms we review can be classified into three main categories: (i) microscale geometrical optics, (ii) multilayer birefringent materials, and (iii) Brewster modes in plasmonic systems, photonic crystals, and metamaterials. In the second half, we present two categories of potential applications for broadband angularly selective systems. The first category aims at enhancing the efficiency of solar energy harvesting, through photovoltaic process or solar thermal process. The second category aims at enhancing light extracting efficiency and detection sensitivity. Finally, we discuss the most prominent challenges in broadband angular selectivity and some prospects on how to solve these challenges. United States. Army Research Office (W911NF-13-D0001) United States. Department of Energy (DE-SC0001299) 2017-04-26T21:38:16Z 2017-04-26T21:38:16Z 2016-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1931-9401 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108437 Shen, Yichen; Hsu, Chia Wei; Yeng, Yi Xiang; Joannopoulos, John D. and Soljačić, Marin. "Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook." Applied Physics Reviews 3, no 1 (February 2016). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-3756 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-5831 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4941257 Applied Physics Reviews Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Institute of Physics (AIP) arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Shen, Yichen Hsu, Chia Wei Yeng, Yi Xiang Joannopoulos, John D. Soljačić, Marin Yeng, YiXiang Joannopoulos, John Soljacic, Marin Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title | Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title_full | Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title_fullStr | Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title_full_unstemmed | Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title_short | Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook |
| title_sort | broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale progress applications and outlook |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108437 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-3756 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-5831 |
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