07/09/2021
By Evan Simmons
The defense will be held on July 23 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. Please contact Evan Simmons for meeting information if you are interested in attending.
Committee:
Archana Kamal, Physics Department
Wei Guo, Physics Department
Viktor Podolskiy, Physics Department
Brief Abstract:
Semiconductor-based designer metals provide a reliable platform for realizing subwavelength optics and modulation of optical density of states, associated with the plasmonic response, in the mid-IR frequency regime. Throughout the years, designer metals have been utilized to realize high performance absorbers, optical filters, and anisotropic (hyperbolic) meta-materials comprised of optically thin layers of highly doped designer metals separated by undoped semiconductor spacers. We have shown that as the components of the meta-material become increasingly thin, the interaction of the confined carriers with an external electromagnetic wave gives rise to a ballistic resonance which yields a dramatic enhancement of the electromagnetic response of these engineered composites. The versatility of the ballistic resonance promises a new class of novel plasmonic and hyperbolic meta-materials capable of operating well above their classical plasma frequency. In this work, we investigate the electromagnetic properties of active ballistic and plasmonic resonant based structures. Further, we address the fundamental limitations of ballistic metamaterials for operating wavelengths in the infrared. With the developed framework, we study the optical characteristics of conical waveguides with hyperbolic and ballistic metamaterial cores. These novel structures, known as Photonic funnels, link the electromagnetic response of the nano- and micro-worlds by supporting sub-diffractive mode propagation.