Tailoring light with photonic crystal slabs : from directional emission to topological half charges

Photonic crystal slabs are a versatile and important platform for molding the flow of light. In this thesis, we consider ways to control the emission of light from photonic crystal slab structures, specifically focusing on directional, asymmetric emission, and on emitting light with interesting topological features. First, we develop a general coupled-mode theory formalism to derive bounds on the asymmetric decay rates to top and bottom of a photonic crystal slab, for a resonance with arbitrary in-plane wavevector. We then employ this formalism to inversion symmetric structures, and show through numerical simulations that asymmetries of top-down decay rates exceeding 104 can be achieved by tuning the resonance frequency to coincide with the perfectly transmitting Fabry-Perot frequency. The emission direction can also be rapidly switched from top to bottom by tuning the wavevector or frequency. We then consider the generation of Mobius strips of light polarization, i.e. vector beams with half-integer polarization winding, from photonic crystal slabs. We show that a quadratic degeneracy formed by symmetry considerations can be split into a pair of Dirac points, which can be further split into four exceptional points. Through calculations of an analytical two-band model and numerical simulations of two-dimensional photonic crystals and photonic crystal slabs, we demonstrate the existence of isofrequency contours encircling two exceptional points, and show the half-integer polarization winding along these isofrequency contours. We further propose a realistic photonic crystal slab structure and experimental setup to verify the existence of such Mobius strips of light polarization.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Zhou, Hengyun, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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/1721.1/105643

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/105643