Photonic Crystal and Photonic Crystal Fibers Communications

The development of all optical communications could benefit from the index guiding photonic crystal fibers. In communication the photonic crystal fibers could provide many new solutions. Conventional optical fibers have within the last decades revolutionized the communications industry and it is today a mature technology being pushed to its limit with respect to properties such as losses, single mode operation and dispersion. The spectra have been used by others to develop optical frequency standards. The process can potentially be used for frequency conversion in fiber optic network. In this system the dispersive properties can be controlled by the optical lattice making it possible to achieve phase-matched four wave mixing, like look the process taking place in the photonic crystal fibers. In this paper we will discuss the use of photonic crystal fibers in communications

Crystal engineering using functionalized adamantane

We performed a first principles investigation on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of crystals made of chemically functionalized adamantane molecules. Several molecular building blocks, formed by boron and nitrogen substitutional functionalizations, were considered to build zincblende and wurtzite crystals, and the resulting structures presented large bulk moduli and cohesive energies, wide and direct bandgaps, and low dielectric constants (low-$\kappa$ materials). Those properties provide stability for such structures up to room temperature, superior to those of typical molecular crystals. This indicates a possible road map for crystal engineering using functionalized diamondoids, with potential applications ranging from space filling between conducting wires in nanodevices to nano-electro-mechanical systems

Phonon engineering through crystal chemistry

Mitigation of the global energy crisis requires tailoring the thermal conductivity of materials. Low thermal conductivity is critical in a broad range of energy conversion technologies, including thermoelectrics and thermal barrier coatings. Here, we review the chemical trends and explore the origins of low thermal conductivity in crystalline materials. A unifying feature in the latest materials is the incorporation of structural complexity to decrease the phonon velocity and increase scattering. With this understanding, strategies for combining these mechanisms can be formulated for designing new materials with exceptionally low thermal conductivity

Enhancing thermoelectric figure-of-merit by low-dimensional electrical transport in phonon-glass crystals

Low-dimensional electronic and glassy phononic transport are two important ingredients of highly-efficient thermoelectric material, from which two branches of the thermoelectric research emerge. One focuses on controlling electronic transport in the low dimension, while the other on multiscale phonon engineering in the bulk. Recent work has benefited much from combining these two approaches, e.g., phonon engineering in low-dimensional materials. Here, we propose to employ the low-dimensional electronic structure in bulk phonon-glass crystal as an alternative way to increase the thermoelectric efficiency. Through first-principles electronic structure calculation and classical molecular dynamics simulation, we show that the $\pi$-$\pi$ stacking Bis-Dithienothiophene molecular crystal is a natural candidate for such an approach. This is determined by the nature of its chemical bonding. Without any optimization of the material parameter, we obtain a maximum room-temperature figure of merit, $ZT$, of $1.48$ at optimal doping, thus validating our idea.Comment: Nano Lett.201

Experimental studies of the internal Goos-Hanchen shift for self-collimated beams in two-dimensional microwave photonic crystals

We study experimentally the Goos-Hanchen effect observed at the reflection of a self-collimated beam from the surface of a two-dimensional photonic crystal and describe a method for controlling the beam reflection through surface engineering. The microwave photonic crystal, fabricated from alumina rods, allows control of the output position of a reflected beam undergoing an internal Goos-Hanchen shift by changing the rod diameter at the reflection surface. The experimental data is in good agreement with the results of the finite-difference time-domain numerical calculations.Comment: 3 pages 4 figures, submitted to AP

Material research in microgravity

A popular discussion is given of microgravity effects in engineering and medicine gained from Skylab experience. Areas covered include crystal growing, liquid surface properties, diffusion, ferromagnetism, and emulsions