Computational investigations of nanophotonic systems

In this thesis, I developed code in the MEEP finite-difference time domain classical electromagnetic solver to simulate the quantum phenomenon of spontaneous emission and its enhancement by a photonic crystal. The results of these simulations were favorably cross-checked with semi-analytical predictions and experimental results. This code was further extended to simulate spontaneous emission from the top half of a sphere, where the top half is a dielectric material and the bottom half is a metal, in order to determine how effective the metal is at reflecting the emission toward the top. Separately, I used the SCUFF-EM boundary element method classical electromagnetic solver to simulate absorption and scattering, together called extinction, of infrared light from nanoparticles, and used those results to optimize the nanoparticle shapes and sizes for extinction at the desired infrared wavelength.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Venkataram, Prashanth Sanjeev

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Marin Soljačić.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92676

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/92676