A negative index material (NIM), which possesses simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability, is an emerging material that has caught many researchers attention after it was first demonstrated in 2001. It has been shown that electromagnetic waves propagating in NIMs have some remarkable properties such as negative phase velocities and negative refraction and hold enormous promise for applications in imaging and optical communications. This dissertation is centered on investigating the unique aspects of the radiative properties of NIMs. Photon tunneling, which relies on evanescent waves to transfer radiative energy, has important applications in thin-film structures, microscale thermophotovoltaic devices, and scanning thermal microscopes. With multilayer thin-film structures, photon tunneling is shown to be greatly enhanced using NIM layers. The enhancement is attributed to the excitation of surface or bulk polaritons, and depends on the thicknesses of the NIM layers according to the phase matching condition. A new coherent thermal emission source is proposed by pairing a negative permittivity (but positive permeability) layer with a negative permeability (but positive permittivity) layer. The merits of such a coherent thermal emission source are that coherent thermal emission occurs for both s- and p-polarizations, without use of grating structures. Zero power reflectance from an NIM for both polarizations indicates the existence of the Brewster angles for both polarizations under certain conditions. The criteria for the Brewster angle are determined analytically and presented in a regime map. The findings on the unique radiative properties of NIMs may help develop advanced energy conversion devices. Motivated by the recent advancement in scanning probe microscopy, the last part of this dissertation focuses on prediction of the radiation heat transfer between two closely spaced semi-infinite media. The objective is to investigate the dopant concentration of silicon on the near-field radiation heat transfer. It is found that the radiative energy flux can be significantly augmented by using heavily doped silicon for the two media separated at nanometric distances. Large enhancement of radiation heat transfer at the nanoscale may have an impact on the development of near-field thermal probing and nanomanufacturing techniques.

The dispersion property of periodic structures is a hot research topic in the last decade. By exploiting dispersion properties, one can manipulate the propagation of electromagnetic waves, and produce effects that do not exist in conventional materials. This thesis is devoted to two important dispersion effects: negative refraction and designed surface plasmons. First, we introduce negative refraction and designed surface plasmons, including a historical perspective, main areas for applications and current trends. Several numerical methods are implemented to analyze electromagnetic effects. We apply the layer-KKR method to calculate the electromagnetic wave through a slab of photonic crystals. By implementing the refraction matrix for semi-infinite photonic crystals, the layer-KKR method is modified to compute the coupling coefficient between plane waves and Bloch modes in photonic crystals. The plane wave method is applied to obtain the band structure and the equal-frequency contours in two-dimensional regular photonic crystals. The finite-difference time-domain method is widely used in our works, but we briefly discuss two calculation recipes in this thesis: how to deal with the surface termination of a perfect conductor and how to calculate the frequency response of high-Q cavities more efficiently using the Pad\`{e} approximation method. We discuss a photonic crystal that exhibits negative refraction characterized by an effective negative index, and systematically analyze the coupling coefficients between plane waves in air and Bloch waves in the photonic crystal. We find and explain that the coupling coefficients are strong-angularly dependent. We first propose an open-cavity structure formed by a negative-refraction photonic crystal. To illuminate the physical mechanism of the subwavelength imaging, we analyze both intensity and phase spectrum of the transmission through a slab of photonic crystals with all-angle negative refraction. It is shown that the focusing properties of the photonic crystal slab are mainly due to the negative refraction effect, rather than the self-collimation effect. As to designed surface plasmons, we design a structured perfectly conducting surface to achieve the negative refraction of surface waves. By the average field method, we obtain the effective permittivity and permeability of a perfectly conducting surface drilled with one-dimensional periodic rectangle holes, and propose this structure as a designed surface plasmon waveguide. By the analogy between designed surface plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons, we show that two different resonances contribute to the enhanced transmission through a metallic film with an array of subwavelength holes, and explain that the shape effect is attributed to localized waveguide resonances. / QC 20100817

In 2000, a controversial paper by John Pendry surmised that a slab of negative index material could act as a perfect lens, projecting images with resolution detail beyond the limits of conventional lensing systems. A thin silver slab was his realistic suggestion for a practical near-field superlens - a 'poor-mans perfect lens'. The superlens relied on plasmonic resonances rather than negative refraction to provide imaging. This silver superlens concept was experimentally verified by the author using a novel near-field lithographic technique called Planar Lensing Lithography (PLL), an extension of a previously developed Evanescent Near-Field Optical Lithography (ENFOL) technique. This thesis covers the computational and experimental efforts to test the performance of a silver superlens using PLL, and to compare it with the results produced by ENFOL. The PLL process was developed by creating metal patterned conformable photomasks on glass coverslips and adapting them for use with an available optical exposure system. After sub-diffraction-limited ENFOL results were achieved with this system additional spacer and silver layers were deposited onto the masks to produce a near-field test platform for the silver superlens. Imaging through a silver superlens was achieved in a near-field lithography environment for sub-micron, sub-wavelength, and sub-diffraction-limited features. The performance of PLL masks with 120-, 85-, 60-, and 50-nm thick silver layers was investigated. Features on periods down to 145-nm have been imaged through a 50-nm thick silver layer into a thin photoresist using a broadband mercury arc lamp. The quality of the imaging has been improved by using 365 nm narrowband exposures, however, resolution enhancement was not achieved. Multiple layer silver superlensing has also been experimentally investigated for the first time; it was proposed that a multi-layered superlens could achieve better resolution than a single layer lens for the same total silver thickness. Using a PLL mask with two 30-nm thick silver layers gave 170-nm pitch sub-diffraction-limited resolution, while for a single layer mask with the same total thickness (60 nm) resolution was limited to a 350-nm pitch. The proposed resolution enhancement was verified, however pattern fidelity was reduced, the result of additional surface roughness. Simulation and analytical techniques have been used to investigate and understand vi ABSTRACT the enhancements and limitations of the PLL technique. A Finite-Difference Time- Domain (FDTD) tool was written to produce full-vector numerical simulations and this provided both broad- and narrowband results, allowing image quality as a function of grating period to be investigated. An analytical T-matrix method was also derived to facilitate computationally efficient performance analysis for grating transmission through PLL stacks. Both methods showed that there is a performance advantage for PLL over conventional near-field optical lithography, however, the performance of the system varies greatly with grating period. The advantages of PLL are most prominent for multi-layer lenses. The work of this thesis indicates that the utilisation of plasmonic resonances in PLL and related techniques can enhance the performance of near-field lithography.

The goal of this project is to study novel nanoscale excitation volumes, sensitive enoughto study individual chromophores and go on to study new and exciting self assemblyapproaches to this problem. Small excitation volumes may be engineered using light con-finement inside apertures in metal films. These apertures enhance fluorescence emissionrates, quantum yields, decrease fluorescence quenching, enable higher signal-to-noiseratios and allow higher concentration single chromophore fluorescence, to be studied byrestricting this excitation volume. Excitation volumes are reported on using the chro-mophore's fluorescence by utilising fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, which monitorsfluctuations in fluorescence intensity. From the correlation in time, we can find the res-idence time, the number of chromophores, the volume in which they are diffusing andtherefore the fluorescence emission efficiency. Fluorescence properties are a probe ofthe local environment, a particularly powerful tool due to the high brightness (quantumyield) fluorescent dyes and sensitive photo-detection equipment both of which are readilyavailable, (such as avalanche photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes). Novel materialscombining the properties of conducting and non-conducting materials at scales muchsmaller than the incident wavelength are known as meta-materials. These allow combi-nations of properties not usually possible in natural materials at optical frequencies. Theproperties reported so far include; negative refraction, negative phase velocity, fluorescenceemission enhancement, lensing and therefore light confinement has also been proposed tobe possible. Instead of expensive and slow lithography methods many of these materialsmay be fabricated with self assembly techniques, which are truly nanoscopic and otherwiseinaccessible with even the most sophisticated equipment. It was found that nanoscaled volumes from ZMW and HMMs based on NW arrays wereall inefficient at enhancing fluorescence. The primary cause was the reduced fluorescencelifetime reducing the fluorescence efficiency, which runs contrary to some commentatorsin the literature. NW based lensing was found to possible in the blue region of the opticalspectrum in a HMM, without the background fluorescence normally associated with a PAAtemplate. This was achieved using a pseudo-ordered array of relatively large nanowireswith a period just smaller than lambda / 2 which minimised losses. Nanowires in the traditionalregime lambda / 10 produced significant scattering and lead to diffraction, such that they werewholly unsuitable for an optical lensing application.

The discovery of metamaterials has led to major advances in different fields of physics including optics, microwave engineering and acoustics. Specific to theoretical electromagnetism, the introduction of metamaterials have led to the development of negative-index materials (NIMs) with simultaneous negative permittivity and negative permeability with backward-wave propagation. In recent studies, exact analytical solutions for wave propagation from a step/graded-index interface between a right-handed material (RHM) and a left-handed material (LHM) have been obtained. This study attempts to provide numerical validation of the analytical solutions obtained by Dalarsson et al. by using the simulation tool CST. An square-SRR/strip-wire unit element was designed, with real part of relative permittivity equal to -1.96 and real part of relative permeability equal to -1.01. Such unit elements were orderly structured to produce a NIM structure. Furthermore, a positive-index material (PIM) structure was produced by reversing the sign of the material properties of the NIM. Both the results for the step- and graded-index interfaces have shown to possess backward-wave propagation for a normal incidence angle. The graded-index interface profiles have a more smooth and continuous wave propagation between the materials, which counteracts the effects of discontinuous material transitions present in step-index interface profiles. However, because the results of the present study were considerably affected by unwanted field effects, the analytical solutions are only qualitatively validated, and not validated in terms of their numerical accuracy. / Upptäckten av metamaterial har lett till stora framsteg inom olika fysikområden inklusive optik, mikrovågsteknik och akustik. Specifikt för teoretisk elektromagnetism, har introduktionen av metamaterial lett till utvecklingen av negativa indexmaterial (NIM) med samtidig negativ permittivitet och negativ permeabilitet med bakåtvågsutbredning. I nyligen genomförda studier, har exakta analytiska lösningar för vågutbredning över ett steg-/graderat- indexgränssnitt mellan ett högerhänt material (RHM) och ett vänsterhänt material (LHM) erhållits. Denna studie försöker tillhanda-hålla numerisk validering, med hjälp av simuleringsverktyget CST, av de analytiska lösningar som erhållits av Dalarsson et al. En square-SRR/strip-wire enhetselement designades, med realdelen av relativ permittivitet lika med -1,96 och realdelen av relativ permeabilitet lika med -1,01. Sådana enhetselement strukturerades för att producera en materialstruktur med negativt index. Dessutom producerades en materialstruktur med positivt index (PIM) genom att vända tecknet av materialegenskaperna hos det negativa indexmaterialet (NIM). Både resultaten för steggränssnittet och det graderade indexgränssnittet har visat sig ha bakåtvågutbredning för vinkelrätt infall. De graderade indexgränssnittsprofilerna har en mer jämn och kontinuerlig vågutbredning mellan materialen, vilket motverkar effekterna av diskontinuerliga materialövergångar som finns i stegindexgränssnittsprofiler. Men eftersom resultaten av den aktuella studien påverkades avsevärt av oönskade fälteffekter, har de analytiska lösningarna validerats endast kvalitativt och valideras inte i termer av deras numeriska noggrannhet.