Moth's eye inspired multiscale ommatidial arrays offer multifunctional properties of great significance in optoelectronic devices. However, a major challenge remains in fabricating these arrays on large-area substrates using a simple and scalable technique. Here we present the fabrication of these multiscale ommatidial arrays over large areas by a distinct approach called sacrificial layer mediated nanoimprinting, which involves nanoimprinting aided by a sacrificial layer. The fabricated arrays exhibited excellent pattern uniformity over the entire patterned area. Optimum dimensions of the multiscale ommatidial arrays determined by the finite-difference time domain simulations served as the design parameters for replicating the arrays on glass. A broadband suppression of reflectance to a minimum of ∼1.4% and omnidirectional antireflection for highly oblique angles of incidence up to 70° were achieved. In addition, superhydrophobicity and superior antifogging characteristics enabled the retention of optical properties even in wet and humid conditions, suggesting reliable optical performance in practical outdoor conditions. We anticipate that these properties could potentially enhance the performance of optoelectronic devices and minimize the influence of in-service conditions. Additionally, as our technique is solely nanoimprinting-based, it may enable scalable and high-throughput fabrication of multiscale ommatidial arrays.

We propose a quarter-wave plate based on nanoslits and analyze it using a semianalytical theory and simulations. The device comprises two nanoslits arranged perpendicular to one another where the phases of the fields transmitted by the nanoslits differ by λ/4. In this way, the polarization state of the incident light can be changed from linear to circular or vice versa. The plasmonic nanoslit wave plate is thin and has a subwavelength lateral extent. We show that the predictions for the phase shift obtained from a semianalytical model are in very good agreement with simulations by the finite difference time domain method.

Abstract-We present a three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method on graphics processing unit (GPU) for plasmonics applications. For the simulation of plasmonics devices, the Lorentz-Drude (LD) dispersive model is incorporated into Maxwell equations, while the auxiliary differential equation (ADE) technique is applied to the LD model. Our numerical experiments based on typical domain sizes as well as plasmonics environment demonstrate that our implementation of the FDTD method on GPU offers significant speed up as compared to the traditional CPU implementations.

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A nonuniform-shape photonic crystal taper integrated with a single-mode optical fiber and a photonic crystal waveguide for high-efficiency mode coupling is presented. The curvature of the tapering section is varied by the parameter alpha. For values of alpha set to 2 and 0.5, concave and convex tapers are obtained, respectively. Numerical calculations yield an average coupling efficiency greater than 97% at a short taper length of 20.52 mum for the convex-shape taper. Subsequently, the value of the parameter alpha is varied for investigating the effects of curvature on coupling efficiency and compactness of different types of taper.

We combine numerical analysis and experiments to investigate the effect of hierarchy on the propagation of elastic waves in triangular beam lattices. While the response of the triangular lattice is characterized by a locally resonant band gap, both Bragg-type and locally resonant gaps are found for the hierarchical lattice. Therefore, our results demonstrate that structural hierarchy can be exploited to introduce an additional type of band gaps, providing a robust strategy for the design of lattice-based metamaterials with hybrid band gap properties (i.e., possessing band gaps that arises from both Bragg scattering and localized resonance).

In this paper, symmetric and asymmetric tapering on the arms of the gammadion nanostructure is proposed to enhance both local field distribution and extinction difference (ED). The asymmetric tapered gammadion with tapering fraction (TF) of 0.67 is seen to have the largest ED and spatial local field distribution, producing a large wavelength shift of more than 50 percent as compared to the untapered gammadion nanostructures when immersed in a solution of actin molecules and filaments. The optical chirality, ζ shows that the larger local field amplitudes produced by the asymmetric designs increases the rate of chiral molecules excitation. This enhanced field is strongly rotating and highly sensitive to single molecules and larger filaments. Here, we show that the ED, optical chirality, sensitivity and rate of chiral molecules excitation can be improved by incorporating asymmetric designs into chiral gammadion nanostructures through tapering.

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