Manipulation of light via subwavelength nanostructures is currently a subject of intense research interest, and is enabling the development of nanostructured photonic crystal, metamaterials and metasurfaces that provide a variety of new optical and electromagnetic functionalities, or that enable existing functionalities to be realized in new and often extremely compact form factors. This dissertation will include wide-angle wavelength-selective metasurface, omnidirectional enhancement in photovoltaic performance via subwavelength gradient anti-reflection coating, and applications of birefringent nanocylinders for single-molecule spectroscopy. In wide-angle wavelength-selective metasurface, high and broad reflectance (~95%) with low absorption (<5%) are shown to be achieved with multilayer metasurface structures. These characteristics are shown to be independent of interlayer misalignment and defects within individual layers. Interactions between different metasurface layers due to Fabry-Perot resonance are also examined with analytical models and numerical simulations. Wavelength-selective focusing at optical wavelengths which is enabled by large-area nanosphere lithography on a flexible substrate is demonstrated. In omnidirectional enhancement in photovoltaic performance via subwavelength gradient anti-reflection coating, large-area "moth-eye" structure fabricated on a flexible substrate is shown to have high transmittance (>85%) at large angle of incidences (>70°) and insensitivity to polarizations. Integration of the "moth-eye" anti-reflection coating together with nanostructured gradient A1₂O₃/TiO₂ on a GaAs solar cell shows significant improvements on external quantum efficiency (EQE) and short circuit current over all angle of incidences compared with conventional thin film anti-reflection coating. Detailed design, simulation, and fabrication of these nanostructured anti-reflection coating for reducing the discontinuity in refractive index profile will also be discussed. In application of birefringent nanocylinders for single-molecule spectroscopy, the design and fabrication method for large quantity of subwavelength birefringent nanoparticle are also discussed. These birefringent nanoparticles are shown to be stably trapped in an optical torque wrench setup, and enable observation of the dynamical response of a double-stranded DNA under torsional and extensional forces. / text

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Infrared (IR) polarizers have been widely used in military and commercial applications. Controlling the polarization of incident light is one of major issues in the detector systems. However, conventional polarimetric IR detectors require series of polarizers and optical components, which increase the volume and weight of the system. In this research, stacked 1-dimensional (1-D) subwavelength grating structures were studied to develop compact size IR polarimetric detector by using surface plasmonic polariton. Experimental parameters were optimized by Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation. Effects of gold (Au) grating size, numbers of stacked gratings, and dielectric space height were tested in the FDTD study. The fabrication of grating layers was conducted by using nanoimprint lithography. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. IR transmissions in transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) modes were measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

We operated focus ion beam instrument (FIB) to etch array of cylindrical holes, with the diameter smaller than the wavelength of visible, on the sliver film. The sample was probed with the tungsten light source and the transmission spectrum of visible-NIR range was recorded with traix550 spectrometer with a cooling CCD. The optical extraordinary properties, such as the light can be transmitted through the holes array with the diameter of the hole smaller than the wavelength of the incident light and the enhancement of the efficiency, of the transmission of the subwavelength holes array were discussed. In this study, the factors affected the transmission spectrum of the subwavelength hole array, e.g.: the arrangement of the holes array, the material of the thin film, the diameter of the hole¡Kand so on, were researched. Besides, we modulated the effective dielectric property of the cavity of the subwavelength holes with the thermal evaporation method. It was pointed out that effective dielectric property of the cavity also influenced the optical properties of extraordinary transmission spectrum. We believe that our research was helpful to understand the physical properties of the subwavelength holes array.

In this letter, we propose all-dielectric Huygens' metasurface structures to construct high numerical aperture flat lenses and beam deflecting devices. The designed metasurface consists of two-dimensional array of all dielectric nanodisk resonators with spatially varying radii, thereby introducing judiciously designed phase shift to the propagating light. Owing to the overlap of Mie-type magnetic and electric resonances, high transmission was achieved with rigorous design analysis. The designed flat lenses have numerical aperture value of 0.85 and transmission values around 80%. It also offers easy fabrication and compatibility with available semiconductor technology. This spectrally and physically scalable, versatile design could implement efficient wavefront manipulation or beam shaping for high power laser beams, as well as various optical microscopy applications without requiring plasmonic structures that are susceptible to ohmic loss of metals and sensitive to the polarization of light.

The light manipulation performance of plasmonic structures has been widely studied at wavelengths spanning from microwave and terahertz radiation to infrared and visible light. Plasmonic nanostructures with designed sizes and geometries displays strong enhancement and confinement of electromagnetic fields that known for tailoring spectra. By exploiting these properties, color printing at the diffraction limit in the visible light regime has recently been demonstrated. Diatoms, one kind of unicellular microalgae, widely exist in aquatic environments and are well-known for their light-manipulating properties. The abundant biologically evolved micro- and nano-pores enable diatom frustules to be remarkably studied achieving superior optical performances in sensing and solar cell applications. In this work, the diatom-inspired metamaterials for subwavelength plasmonic color printing have been investigated. The nanoporous structures on diatom frustules are examined to develop both Hierarchical Diatom-inspired Nanopattern (HDN) and Misaligned Hierarchical Diatom-inspired Nanopattern (MHDN) with different structural parameters on the metamaterial design. Using finite-element simulations, the practical metal-insulator-metal (MIM) configurations are screened, and electric field distribution is evaluated to uncover the physical mechanisms responsible for color printing. Nanofabrication and optical measurement are conducted as complementary validation for simulation analysis and present the practicality for application. / 2024-01-15T00:00:00Z

Novel wave phenomena in two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) phononic crystals were investigated experimentally using ultrasonic techniques. Resonant tunneling of ultrasonic waves was successfully observed for the first time by measuring the transmission of ultrasound pulses through a double barrier consisting of two 3D phononic crystals separated by a cavity. This effect is the classical analogue of resonant tunneling of a quantum mechanical particle through a double potential barrier, in which transmission reaches unity at resonant frequencies. For phononic crystals, the tunneling peak was found to be less than unity, an effect that was explained by absorption. The dynamics of resonant tunneling was explored by measuring the group velocities of the ultrasonic pulses. Very slow and very fast velocities were found at frequencies close to and at the resonance, respectively. These extreme values are less than the speed of sound in air and greater than the speed of sound in any of the crystal’s constituent materials. Negative refraction and focusing effects in 2D phononic crystals were also observed. Negative refraction of ultrasound was demonstrated unambiguously in a prism-shaped 2D crystal at frequencies in the 2nd pass band where the wave vector and group velocity are opposite. The Multiple Scattering Theory and Snell’s law allowed theoretical predictions of the refraction angles. Excellent agreement was found between theory and experiment. The negative refraction experiments revealed a mechanism that can be used to focus ultrasound using a flat phononic crystal, and experiments to demonstrate the focusing of ultrasound emitted by several point sources were successfully carried out. The importance of using phononic crystals with circular equifrequency contours, as well as matching the size of the contours inside and outside the crystal, was established. Both conditions were satisfied by a flat phononic crystal of steel rods, in which the liquid inside the crystal (methanol) was different from the outside medium (water). The possibility of achieving subwavelength resolution using this phononic crystal was investigated with a subwavelength line source (a miniature strip-shaped transducer, approximately lambda/5 wide, where lambda is sound wavelength in water). A resolution of 0.55lambda was found, which is just above the diffraction limit lambda/2. / October 2007

Near-field light confinement on scanning probe is the backbone technology for near-field imaging with subwavelength resolution that overcomes the diffraction limit by exploiting the properties of evanescent waves. The fusion of the photonics and the latest nanofabrication technology creates emerging frontier for near-field light confinement research with new design approach. The propagation of light can now be controlled by periodical structure at subwavelength scale with low loss in the artificially synthesized dielectric material. New light propagation patterns can now be implemented in subwavelength structure, such as directional free space light focus grating coupler, photonic bandgap material like photonic crystal by permitting light propagation at certain wavelength while prohibiting light outside of bandgap, and nano-slot light resonator for increased light-matter interaction at nanometer scale. Advances in this research area will have tremendous impact on electromagnetic modeling and biomedical technology for probe based subwavelength optical detection. My doctoral research focused on investigating highly efficient, nanofabrication compatible directional light coupling structure and near-field subwavelength light focus through photonic crystal material. The distinct significance of this research was placed on exploitation of the embedded metallic grating coupler of high free space directivity and subwavelength light processing circuit of enhanced near-field transmission rate, the two most dominating basic elements of the scanning optical imaging system. First, I designed a compact elliptical grating coupler based on embedded noble metal such as gold or silver that efficiently interconnects free space with dielectric rectangular waveguide. The dense system integration capability shows the application potential for on-chip interfacing subwavelength light processing circuits and near-field fluorescent biosensors with far-field detection of superb radiation directivity and coupling efficiency. Second, a novel all-dielectric light confinement probe designed by slotted photonic crystal waveguide provides a light confinement mechanism on the lateral plane. The resonating nano-cavities and the λ/4 nano-slot are used to enlarge the light throughput while as the nano-slot waveguide provides single subwavelength center lobe. The impetus of this research is the growing interests by near-field imaging researchers to obtain a low loss visible light confinement probe designs through mass production. / text

Novel wave phenomena in two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) phononic crystals were investigated experimentally using ultrasonic techniques. Resonant tunneling of ultrasonic waves was successfully observed for the first time by measuring the transmission of ultrasound pulses through a double barrier consisting of two 3D phononic crystals separated by a cavity. This effect is the classical analogue of resonant tunneling of a quantum mechanical particle through a double potential barrier, in which transmission reaches unity at resonant frequencies. For phononic crystals, the tunneling peak was found to be less than unity, an effect that was explained by absorption. The dynamics of resonant tunneling was explored by measuring the group velocities of the ultrasonic pulses. Very slow and very fast velocities were found at frequencies close to and at the resonance, respectively. These extreme values are less than the speed of sound in air and greater than the speed of sound in any of the crystal’s constituent materials. Negative refraction and focusing effects in 2D phononic crystals were also observed. Negative refraction of ultrasound was demonstrated unambiguously in a prism-shaped 2D crystal at frequencies in the 2nd pass band where the wave vector and group velocity are opposite. The Multiple Scattering Theory and Snell’s law allowed theoretical predictions of the refraction angles. Excellent agreement was found between theory and experiment. The negative refraction experiments revealed a mechanism that can be used to focus ultrasound using a flat phononic crystal, and experiments to demonstrate the focusing of ultrasound emitted by several point sources were successfully carried out. The importance of using phononic crystals with circular equifrequency contours, as well as matching the size of the contours inside and outside the crystal, was established. Both conditions were satisfied by a flat phononic crystal of steel rods, in which the liquid inside the crystal (methanol) was different from the outside medium (water). The possibility of achieving subwavelength resolution using this phononic crystal was investigated with a subwavelength line source (a miniature strip-shaped transducer, approximately lambda/5 wide, where lambda is sound wavelength in water). A resolution of 0.55lambda was found, which is just above the diffraction limit lambda/2.

This thesis examines a series of near-field antenna arrays used to perform subwavelength focusing and subwavelength imaging outside the extreme near field. For this purpose, slot and dipole arrays have been designed to produce a subwavelength focal spot at a distance of a quarter wavelength from the array. The dipole arrays are then used as scanning probes to produce images with subwavelength resolution based on perturbations in the scattered field. Unlike negative-refractive-index metamaterial superlenses, the imaging resolution is not affected by losses in the array. Furthermore, the arrays are simple to fabricate and are frequency scalable up to Terahertz frequencies and beyond. A near-field analogue to classic antenna-array theory called ``shifted beam theory'' is presented as a design tool. Based on the linear independence of element field patterns in the near field, this theory is very intuitive and provides a simplified way to calculate the element current weights necessary to generate a given target near-field pattern. Two-dimensional near-field subwavelength focusing is demonstrated using a slotted transmission-screen, or ``meta-screen'', under plane-wave incidence. At a distance of a quarter wavelength, the transverse electric field was measured in experiment to have a full-width half-maximum beamwidth of 0.40 by 0.27 wavelengths. This is compared to a single slot transmission-screen which had a beamwidth of 0.60 by 0.58 wavelengths. Broadside and end-fire dipole arrays are used to perform subwavelength imaging in one and two dimensions, respectively. The experimental minimum resolvable separation between two objects at a quarter-wavelength distance was 0.26 wavelengths using the end-fire array probe, as compared to 0.43 wavelengths for a single monopole probe. For an experiment using eight objects scattered over a one-square-wavelength area, however, the array probe imaging resolution remained around 0.25 wavelengths while the baseline monopole probe was no longer able to resolve any of the objects. Experiments were also conducted using objects buried behind a dielectric barrier as well as objects immersed within a dielectric. These results were consistent with the resolution improvements observed in the free-space resolution experiments.

This thesis examines a series of near-field antenna arrays used to perform subwavelength focusing and subwavelength imaging outside the extreme near field. For this purpose, slot and dipole arrays have been designed to produce a subwavelength focal spot at a distance of a quarter wavelength from the array. The dipole arrays are then used as scanning probes to produce images with subwavelength resolution based on perturbations in the scattered field. Unlike negative-refractive-index metamaterial superlenses, the imaging resolution is not affected by losses in the array. Furthermore, the arrays are simple to fabricate and are frequency scalable up to Terahertz frequencies and beyond. A near-field analogue to classic antenna-array theory called ``shifted beam theory'' is presented as a design tool. Based on the linear independence of element field patterns in the near field, this theory is very intuitive and provides a simplified way to calculate the element current weights necessary to generate a given target near-field pattern. Two-dimensional near-field subwavelength focusing is demonstrated using a slotted transmission-screen, or ``meta-screen'', under plane-wave incidence. At a distance of a quarter wavelength, the transverse electric field was measured in experiment to have a full-width half-maximum beamwidth of 0.40 by 0.27 wavelengths. This is compared to a single slot transmission-screen which had a beamwidth of 0.60 by 0.58 wavelengths. Broadside and end-fire dipole arrays are used to perform subwavelength imaging in one and two dimensions, respectively. The experimental minimum resolvable separation between two objects at a quarter-wavelength distance was 0.26 wavelengths using the end-fire array probe, as compared to 0.43 wavelengths for a single monopole probe. For an experiment using eight objects scattered over a one-square-wavelength area, however, the array probe imaging resolution remained around 0.25 wavelengths while the baseline monopole probe was no longer able to resolve any of the objects. Experiments were also conducted using objects buried behind a dielectric barrier as well as objects immersed within a dielectric. These results were consistent with the resolution improvements observed in the free-space resolution experiments.