No Arabic abstract
We discuss propagation effects in realistic, transparent, metallo-dielectric photonic band gap structures in the context of negative refraction and super-resolution in the visible and near infrared ranges. In the resonance tunneling regime, we find that for transverse-magnetic incident polarization, field localization effects contribute to a waveguiding phenomenon that makes it possible for the light to remain confined within a small fraction of a wavelength, without any transverse boundaries, due to the suppression of diffraction. This effect is related to negative refraction of the Poynting vector inside each metal layer, balanced by normal refraction inside the adjacent dielectric layer: The degree of field localization and material dispersion together determine the total momentum that resides within any given layer, and thus the direction of energy flow. We find that the transport of evanescent wave vectors is mediated by the excitation of quasi-stationary, low group velocity surface waves responsible for relatively large losses. As representative examples we consider transparent metallo-dielectric stacks such as Ag/TiO2 and Ag/GaP and show in detail how to obtain the optimum conditions for high transmittance of both propagating and evanescent modes for super-guiding and super resolution applications across the visible and near IR ranges. Finally, we study the influence of gain on super-resolution. We find that the introduction of gain can compensate the losses caused by the excitation of surface plasmons, improves the resolving characteristics of the lens, and leads to gain-tunable super-resolution.
The interaction of non-monochromatic radiation with two types of arrays comprising both plasmonic and dielectric nanoparticles has been studied in detail. We have shown that dielectric nanoparticle arrays provide a complete selective reflection of an incident plane wave within a narrow spectral line of collective lattice resonance with a Q-factor of $10^3$ or larger, whereas plasmonic refractory TiN and chemically stable Au nanoparticle arrays demonstrated high-Q resonances with moderate reflectivity. The spectral position of these resonance lines is determined by the lattice period, as well as the size, shape and material composition of the particles. Moreover, the arrays, with fixed dimensional parameters make it possible to fine-tune the position of a selected resonant spectral line by tilting the array relative to the direction of the incident radiation. These effects provide possibilities for engineering of novel selective tunable optical high-Q filters in a wide range of wavelengths: from visible to middle IR. Several highly refractive dielectric nanoparticle materials with low absorption are proposed for various spectral ranges, such as LiNbO$_3$, TiO$_2$, GaAs, Si, and Ge.
The ongoing effort to implement compact and cheap optical systems is the main driving force for the recent flourishing research in the field of optical metalenses. Metalenses are a type of metasurface, used for focusing and imaging applications, and are implemented based on the nanopatterning of an optical surface. The challenge faced by metalens research is to reach high levels of performance, using simple fabrication methods suitable for mass-production. In this paper we present a Huygens nanoantenna based metalens, designed for outdoor photographic/surveillance applications in the near-infra-red. We show that good imaging quality can be obtained over a field-of-view (FOV) as large as +/-15 degrees. This first successful implementation of metalenses for outdoor imaging applications is expected to provide insight and inspiration for future metalens imaging applications.
Are we alone? Answering this ageless question will be a major focus for astrophysics in coming decades. Our tools will include unprecedentedly large UV-Optical-IR space telescopes working with advanced coronagraphs and starshades. Yet, these facilities will not live up to their full potential without better detectors than we have today. To inform detector development, this paper provides an overview of visible and near-IR (VISIR; $lambda=0.4-1.8~mutextrm{m}$) detector needs for the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST), specifically for spectroscopic characterization of atmospheric biosignature gasses. We also provide a brief status update on some promising detector technologies for meeting these needs in the context of a passively cooled ATLAST.
The anomalous achromatic mirror operating in near-IR and visible frequency range was designed using an array of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) resonators. An incident wave interacting with MIM resonator experiences phase shift that is equal to the optical path travelled by the gap plasmon, excited by the wave. The phase gradient along the mirror surface is created through the difference in plasmons optical paths in resonators of different lengths. In the frequency region well below the plasma frequency of the metal, the phase gradient is a linear function of frequency, and thus the mirror operates in achromatic regime, i.e. reflection angle does not depend on the radiation frequency. Using silver-air-silver resonators, we predicted that the mirror can steer normally incident beam to angles as large as 40$^{circ}$ with high radiation efficiency (exceeding 98 $%$) and small Joule losses (below 10 $%$).
We investigate the spectral properties of one-dimensional multilayer structures for the two polarizations TE and TM. We give a physical explanation for the large spatial transmission band that can be obtained with this kind of system, and the correlated super resolution effect. We also suggest a designing approach to build 1D metal-dielectric multilayer structures that have super resolution.