Defects, thermal phenomena and design in photonic crystal systems

The physics of blackbodies has been an ongoing source of fascination and scientific research for over a hundred years. Kirchhoff's law states that emissivity and absorptivity are equal for an object in thermal equilibrium. Coupled with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, one can show that no object can emit more than a blackbody at any given frequency, direction or polarization. While this provides a theoretical maximum to the intensity of thermal emission from an object, few come even close to the level of emission exhibited by a blackbody. Thus, there is much room for research into enhancing thermal radiation from many different types of materials. The ability to modify or tailor the thermal emission profile of an object is of great importance and interest in many areas of applied physics and engineering. It turns out that thermal emission spectra can be changed by altering the geometry of the system or the materials used. For instance, nanoscale patterning can enhance emission at certain frequencies, while point defects can localize light at microcavities. General periodic electromagnetic structures, also known as photonic crystals, are therefore a natural medium in which to carry out such investigations, since they are metallodielectric systems that lend themselves relatively easily to sub-wavelength scale patterning and design.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Chan, David Lik Chin

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/1721.1/39563

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39563