A novel eigenvalue method for calculating the band structure of lossy and dispersive photonic crystals

In this paper, we first improve the traditional transfer matrix method to adapt to one-dimensional photonic crystal consisting of arbitrary materials, and then use it to study the reflection phase characteristics of two kinds of photonic crystals, i.e., a simple periodic photonic crystal structure and a coupled-cavity asymmetric photonic crystal with gradually changed thickness of surface layer. For both of the structures, the reflectivity within photonic band gap is above 98% and hardly affected by the thickness of the surface layer. However, their reflection phases exhibit distinctly different properties. For the simple photonic crystal structure, the reflection phases of both TE and TM polarizations are sensitively dependent on the thickness of surface layer, but their phase difference is almost the same as the thickness of surface layer varies, which cannot change the polarization of reflected light. While for the coupled-cavity asymmetric photonic crystal structure, studies show that the degenerate defect modes within photonic band gap will split as the thickness of the surface layer varies. Moreover, around the splitting defect modes the reflection phases of both TE and TM polarizations, as well as their phase difference, are sensitively dependent on the thickness of surface layer, resulting in sensitive polarization change of reflected light. The physical reason is attributed to the dramatic phase change caused by the splitting of degenerate defect modes. The above reflection phase characteristics of coupled-cavity asymmetric photonic crystals have potential in lowering or even eliminating the coherence of lasers in some special application cases. As an example, we design a one-dimensional photonic crystal structure with two-dimensional periodic varying thickness of surface layer. After an oblique incident narrowband laser beam is reflected from this structure and then focused by a lens, various polarized light beams (including linear polarized light beams along different directions, left-hand (or right-hand) circular (or elliptical) polarized light beams) will exist simultaneously, whose superposition will produce optical field with random phase and polarizations in the focal region. These results can effectively reduce the coherence of lasers, which holds promise in many fields such as laser nuclear fusion.

Reflection phase characteristics and their applications based on one-dimensional coupled-cavity photonic crystals with gradually changed thickness ofsurface layer

Zhiming¹,

Liang²

2016

Coherent perfect absorption and transmission of a generalized three-mode cavity optico-mechanical system

Yong-Tang¹

2017

With the rapid development of nano-physics and quantum optics, optico-mechanical coupling system is developing toward the miniaturization and lightweight. The physical characteristics of optical cavity and applications of optic-mechanical devices have received much attention. In this paper, a generalized three-mode cavity optico-mechanical system is presented, the steady-state responses of the system to the characteristics of weak detection of light absorption and dispersion in several different coherent driving modes are studied. Situated in the middle of system is a portable total reflection mechanical oscillator with a reflectance of 100%, and located on each side is a fixed optical cavity mirror with partial transmittance, Three-mode cavity optical mechanical system consists of fixed-mirror, removable-vibrator, fixed-mirror structure. in which the two optical cavities are coupled by coupling a stronger control field and weak probe light with the same mechanical oscillator. Analysis and numerical results show that under the mechanism with different parameters, due to nonlinear effect of pressure, in the three-mode cavity optical mechanical system, there appear some interesting quantum coherent phenomena such as coherent perfect absorption, coherent perfect transmission and coherent perfect synthesis. When coherent perfect absorption occurs, the mutual conversion between input signal power full-field energies and oscillator vibration of internal coherence can be realized, and the law of conservation of energy is satisfied. When relaxation rate due to mechanical oscillator is very small, the coherent perfect transmission is completely transmitted from the system side of the input field to the other side in the case of no loss of energy. And mechanical relaxation rate of the oscillator approaches to zero in the middle, which can ensure that the perfect transmission of the detection field takes place on one side, and the field total reflection and coherent perfect synthesis happen on the other side of. In addition, we alsofind that the adjustment of coupling between cavity and cavity can change the intensity of the probe field of quantum coherent control thereby realizing that the output of the detection field is transformed between coherent perfect absorption and coherence transmission; through simple phase modulation the output direction and input direction of detection field for left cavity-right cavity can swap mutually. So, these dynamic controls in quantum information networks can be used to construct some optical devices with special functions, such as photon switch, photo router, photon exchange machine, etc.

Surface plasmon induced transparency in coupled microcavities assisted by slits

Zhang¹,

Chen²

2020

The coupled waveguide-microcavity structure has a wide range of applications in optical filters and optical modulators. The optical transmission properties of structure are mostly determined by the coupling strength of the modes. In the conventional waveguide-microcavity structure, the mode coupling is finished by the form of evanescent field, which is usually achieved by controlling the geometric spacing between waveguide and microcavity. Surface plasmon polaritons are the excitations of the electromagnetic waves coupled to collective oscillations of free electrons in metal. Since the electromagnetic waves are attenuated sharply in the metal, this requires precise control of the spacing between the waveguide and the metal microcavity, and poses a great challenge for controlling the coupling of modes in the metal waveguide-cavity structure. In this paper, we proposed a scheme of using a metal-dielectric-metal waveguide side coupling metal microcavities to overcome this limit. Based on the resonant characteristics of the Fabry–Pérot mode in the metal microcavity, a slit is introduced to connect the waveguide and microcavities. By adjusting the width and the offset location of slits, the leakage rate and coupling strength of the mode in metal microcavity can be controlled. The finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) method was used to numerically simulate the electromagnetic properties of structure. First, we have studied the transmission behaviors of surface plasmon polaritons in the system consisted by metal waveguide and single microcavity. As other microcavity is introduced to the structure and connected the original microcavity by slit, the electromagnetically induced transparency phenomena based on surface plasmon polaritons are demonstrated in the coupled metal waveguide and double microcavities structure. As the width of slit connected the microcavity is increased, the transmission peak of structure and the full width at half maximum of the transparency window also increase accordingly. The change of the geometric parameters of slit will modulate the resonance characteristics of structure, and the corresponding physical mechanism is explained by the temporal coupled mode theory. In our works, the metal waveguide and microcavities are coupled by the energy leakage of microcavities assisted by slits, which breaks the limit of separation distance between metal waveguide and microcavity, and contributes to the manufacture of devices. The results of the paper will have applications in designing the compact photonic devices based on surface plasmon polaritons.