Absorption suppression in photonic crystals

Abstract

Abstract. We study electromagnetic properties of periodic composite structures, such as photonic crystals, involving lossy components. We show that in many cases a properly designed periodic structure can dramatically suppress the losses associated with the absorptive component, while preserving or even enhancing its useful functionality. As an example, we consider magnetic photonic crystals, in which the lossy magnetic component provides nonreciprocal Faraday rotation. We show that the electromagnetic losses in the composite structure can be reduced by up to two orders of magnitude, compared to those of the uniform magnetic sample made of the same lossy magnetic material. Importantly, the dramatic absorption reduction is not a resonance effect and occurs over a broad frequency range covering a significant portion of the respective photonic frequency band.

Giant gain enhancement in photonic crystals with a degenerate band edge

“…Such a gain medium is provided by a periodic structure supporting a DBE as we demonstrate here for a specific example based on some preliminary ideas expressed in [48]. To understand origins of the giant gain let us recall some basic properties of DBE in photonic crystals.…”

Inverse Borrmann effect in photonic crystals

“…3, it was theoretically shown that the spatial distribution of the electric field in a MPC strongly depends on both the field frequency and the material parameters of magnetic and non-magnetic layers. As a result, a possibility of a substantial enhancement of the Faraday effect as well as nonlinear magneto-optical effects in MPCs was predicted [3][4][5] and experimentally verified. 4 The dependence of optical and magneto-optical properties of PCs on the spatial distribution of electromagnetic waves inside PCs can be considered as an optical analog of the Borrmann effect, which manifests itself in anomalous absorption/transmission of x-rays in near-perfect crystals.…”

Lagrangian framework for systems composed of high-loss and lossless components

“…An important and guiding example of a two-component dielectric medium composed of a high-loss and lossless components was constructed in [FigVit8]. The example was a simple layered structure which had magnetic properties comparable with a natural bulk material but with 100 times lesser losses in a wide frequency range.…”