Anomalous photon phenomena in electromagnetic crystal systems

In 2000, a composite material was fabricated in the gigahertz range that appeared to exhibit simultaneously negative values of permittivity and permeability. Such substances were known as "left-handed materials," and had been predicted to enable a variety of anomalous electromagnetic effects. Intense interests have developed in these materials after microwave negative refraction was experimentally observed in 2001. During the same period, a series of experiments was carried out reporting remark- able optical refraction phenomena in periodically modulated dielectric structures. A super-sensitive dependence on incidence parameters called "the superprism effect" was observed and interpreted using the anomalous group velocities in these structures. Negative refractive indices were also demonstrated and explained in terms of the backward-wave effects. Through theoretical and computational means, this research studies anomalous light phenomena in electromagnetic crystals. First, negative refraction of light is shown to be possible inside two-dimensional structures without requiring the backward- wave condition. The analysis is then extended to three-dimensional systems to predict a crystal enabling negative refraction for all incident directions. Second, transmission of evanescent waves through electromagnetic-crystal slabs is studied, and a general result is established linking bound slab resonance states to an amplification effect of evanescent waves.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Luo, Chiyan, 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John D. Joannopoulos.

• 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/1721.1/29451

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29451