Thesis (M.S.) -- Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: CROW; PBG; PhC; coupled resonator optical waveguide; metamaterials; photonic crystal; Bloch wave; photonic band gap;dynamic waveguide; Brillouin zone; thermal spreading. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-87).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-64). Also available in print.

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Photonic crystals are media with periodically varying optical properties. Photonic crystals enable exquisite control of light propagation in integrated optical circuits and also emulate advanced physical concepts. However, common photonic crystals directly pattern the optical medium and thus are unfit for in-operando on/off controls. In this dissertation, we introduced, fabricated, and studied the properties of graphene polaritonic crystals. Our polaritonic crystal system consists of a pristine sheet of graphene in a back-gated platform with nano-structured gate insulators. We employed scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) to study the novel properties of polaritons propagating in the polaritonic crystal. We demonstrated the formation of a polaritonic bandgap, variations of the polaritonic local density of states, and the emergence of polaritonic domain wall states. We also revealed the programmable control of the polariton propagation direction and reconstructed the polaritonic bandstructure from real-space polariton images. The exploration of topological polaritonic phenomena in the polaritonic crystal relies on the selective excitation of topologically non-trivial modes using a chiral polariton launcher. We searched for the design of an efficient chiral polariton launcher. Throughout the journey, we visualized the polaritonic vortex mode of hBN phonon-polaritons. We discovered that the optical spin angular momentum of hBN phonon-polaritons resembles nano-scale meron spin textures. The meron spin texture possesses a half-integer topological charge determined by the handedness of the incident beam. The polaritonic crystal platform studied in this dissertation sheds light on the exploration of topologically non-trivial polaritonic states, such as valley plasmons and topological edge states. In addition, our electrostatically-tunable polaritonic crystals are derived from standard metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor technology and pave a way for practical on-chip light manipulation.

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The Best MPhil Thesis in the Faculties of Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine and Science (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize,2008-2009 / published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis presents results in two different neighboring areas of research: the magnetic properties of thin ferrite films and the application of the films in two-dimensional photonic crystals. In the first part, we investigate the accuracy of the customary method for determining the magnetic anisotropy constants of ferrite films by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiment. We have improved the method and introduced an experimental procedure to obtain the anisotropy constants with higher precision. The magnetic anisotropy fields are obtained by using FMR on a (111)-oriented yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film made by pulsed laser deposition. Moreover, we found experimentally that the shapes of FMR spectra of laser deposited epitaxial YIG films strongly depend on the orientation of the magnetic bias field with respect to the crystalline axes of the film. Inhomogeneities of the constants of anisotropy throughout the film could be responsible for the complexity of the FMR spectra. We find the special directions of the applied magnetic field in which the contribution of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy has the smallest effect on the ferromagnetic resonance and therefore on the elements of the permeability tensor. In the second part, we study the electromagnetic wave propagation in two-dimensional (2D) dielectric and magneto-optic photonic crystals (PCs). We have proposed a 2D PC which is composed of magneto-optic material for the purpose of the enhancement of Faraday rotation in high transmission. It is assumed that the 2D PC contains a bismuth iron garnet (BIG) film either as the PC background medium or as a defect, embedded in the 2D PC. We have examined theoretically and computationally the increase in the Faraday rotation as well as the transmission of a plane-polarized plane wave incident onto these structures in the optical wavelength regime. Several important phenomena, with potential applications, are observed.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are periodically structured electromagnetic media, generally characterised by not permitting light of defined ranges of frequency to propagate through the structure. These disallowed ranges of frequency are known as photonic band gaps. The intentional introduction of defects into the crystal gives rise to localized electromagnetic states that provide a mechanism for the control of the propagation of photons through PhCs. In the case of one dimensional (1-D) PhCs, the introduction of a single defect into a finite PhC results in the formation of a resonant cavity structure, a so-called microcavity. The ease of fabrication and scope for integration make 1-D PhCs good candidates for the future applications of PhCs in light transmission systems and, as such, these structures are the focus of the research reported here. The aim of this thesis is to report a practical study of passive 1-D PhC devices and thereby extend the base of measurements that support and extend the results of theory and simulation. Various types of 1-D PhC structures have been fabricated using electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma technologies in a clean-room environment. The fabricated structures in effect demonstrate a first or primitive level of integration of 1-D PhCs with another optical device, namely a ridge waveguide. Measurements were performed by butt-coupling from a single mode fibre taper of the transmission characteristics of the resulting integrated waveguides, whilst a Side-band measurement method for very high resolution (0.2pm) microcavity characterisation was invented during the measurement process. A multiple wavelength transmission optical filter transmitting at the telecommunication wavelengths of 1310nm and 1550nm, and which could be used in a WDM system was demonstrated. The effect of introducing mode matching structures to minimize II the scattering loss and boost the quality factor value was investigated. Optimum positioning of the tapers produced a significant enhancement of Q. Finally, a narrow pass band filter constructed from coupled cavities was fabricated and characterised. A quasi-flat transmission peak with a pass band width of just 4nm was observed.

One of the daunting challenges in wave physics is to accurately control the flow of light at the subwavelength scale. By patterning the optical medium one can design anisotropic artificial medium, this engineering method is commonly known as photonic crystals or metamaterials. Negative or zero index of refraction, slow-light propagation, cloaking with transformation optics material, and beam collimation are only a few such unique functionalities that can be achieved in engineered media at the subwavelength scale. Another interesting phenomenon in wave physics, Anderson localization, which suggests electron localization inside a semiconductor, has been intensely investigated over the past years, including transverse localization in bulk and waveguide arrays periodic in one and two dimensions. Here we report the photon transport and collimation enhanced by transverse Anderson localization in chip-scale anisotropic artificial medium, a similar physical model to doping the impurity in insulator and turning it into a semiconductor. First, by engineering the photonic crystal, we demonstrate a new type of anisotropic artificial medium for diffraction-free transport through cascaded tunneling of guided resonances. High-resolution near-field measurements demonstrate the coupling of transverse guided resonances, supported by large-scale numerical modeling. Second, with the disordered scattering sites in this superlattices, we uncover the mechanism of disorder-induced transverse localization in chip-scale. Arrested spatial divergence is captured in the power-law scaling, along with the exponential asymmetric mode profiles and enhanced collimation bandwidth for increasing disorder, over 4,000 scattering sites. With increasing disorder, we observe the crossover from cascaded guided resonances into transverse localization regimes, beyond the ballistic and diffusive transport of photons. As disorder is ubiquitous in natural and artificial materials, the transport through random media is of great importance. It also leads to various interesting optical phenomena, of which the most surprising one is Anderson localization of light. However, not all the states in disordered system are localized. Nonlocalized modes that extend over the whole sample via coupling between multiple local cavities with similar resonance frequencies are also present in disordered systems. These extended modes are called necklace states. Here, we also show that long-distance beam collimation can be witnessed in millimeter-scale photonic crystals that were fabricated lithographically with ultrahigh resolutions. By precisely controlling the disorder level of three million scattering sites in photonic crystals, we uncovered the transformation of light flows from the propagation of regular Bloch modes to necklace states.