567 research outputs found
Fundamental limits to optical response in absorptive systems
At visible and infrared frequencies, metals show tantalizing promise for
strong subwavelength resonances, but material loss typically dampens the
response. We derive fundamental limits to the optical response of absorptive
systems, bounding the largest enhancements possible given intrinsic material
losses. Through basic conservation-of-energy principles, we derive
geometry-independent limits to per-volume absorption and scattering rates, and
to local-density-of-states enhancements that represent the power radiated or
expended by a dipole near a material body. We provide examples of structures
that approach our absorption and scattering limits at any frequency, by
contrast, we find that common "antenna" structures fall far short of our
radiative LDOS bounds, suggesting the possibility for significant further
improvement. Underlying the limits is a simple metric, for a material with susceptibility , that enables
broad technological evaluation of lossy materials across optical frequencies.Comment: 21 pages and 6 figures (excluding appendices, references
Shadow-free multimers as extreme-performance meta-atoms
We generalize the concept of parity-time symmetric structures with the goal
to create meta-atoms exhibiting extraordinary abilities to overcome the
presumed limitations in the scattering of overall lossless particles, such as
non-zero forward scattering and the equality of scattering and extinction
powers for all lossless particles. Although the forward scattering amplitude
and the extinction cross section of our proposed meta-atoms vanish, they
scatter incident energy into other directions, with controllable
directionality. These meta-atoms possess extreme electromagnetic properties not
achievable for passive scatterers. As an example, we study meta-atoms
consisting of two or three small dipole scatters. We consider possible
microwave realizations in the form of short dipole antennas loaded by lumped
elements. The proposed meta-atom empowers extraordinary response of a
shadow-free scatterer and theoretically enables most unusual material
properties when used as a building block of an artificial medium.Comment: 14 pages, 9 Figure
Fundamental Limits to Near-Field Optical Response over Any Bandwidth
We develop an analytical framework to derive upper bounds to light-matter interactions in the optical near field, where applications ranging from spontaneous-emission amplification to greater-than-blackbody heat transfer show transformative potential. Our framework connects the classic complex-analytic properties of causal fields with newly developed energy-conservation principles, resulting in a new class of power-bandwidth limits. These limits demonstrate the possibility of orders-of-magnitude enhancement in near-field optical response with the right combination of material and geometry. At specific frequency and bandwidth combinations, the bounds can be closely approached by canonical plasmonic geometries, with the opportunity for new designs to emerge away from those frequency ranges. Embedded in the bounds is a material “figure of merit,” which determines the maximum response of any material (metal, dielectric, bulk, 2D, etc.), for any frequency and bandwidth. Our bounds on local density of states represent maximal spontaneous-emission enhancements, our bounds on cross density of states limit electromagnetic-field correlations, and our bounds on radiative heat transfer (RHT) represent the first such analytical rule, revealing fundamental limits relative to the classical Stefan-Boltzmann law.United States. Army Research Office (Contract W911NF-18-2-0048)United States. Army Research Office (Contract W911NF-13-D-0001
Generalized optical theorem for reflection, transmission, and extinction of power for scalar fields
We present a derivation of the optical theorem that makes it possible to obtain expressions for the extinguished power in a very general class of problems not previously treated. The results are applied to the analysis of the extinction of power by a scatterer in the presence of a lossless half space. Applications to microscopy and tomography are discussed
Anomalies in Light Scattering
Scattering of electromagnetic waves lies at the heart of most experimental
techniques over nearly the entire electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from radio
waves to optics and X-rays. Hence, deep insight into the basics of scattering
theory and understanding the peculiar features of electromagnetic scattering is
necessary for the correct interpretation of experimental data and an
understanding of the underlying physics. Recently, a broad spectrum of
exceptional scattering phenomena attainable in suitably engineered structures
has been predicted and demonstrated. Examples include bound states in the
continuum, exceptional points in PT-symmetrical non-Hermitian systems, coherent
perfect absorption, virtual perfect absorption, nontrivial lasing,
non-radiating sources, and others. In this paper, we establish a unified
description of such exotic scattering phenomena and show that the origin of all
these effects can be traced back to the properties of poles and zeros of the
underlying scattering matrix. We provide insights on how managing these special
points in the complex frequency plane provides a powerful approach to tailor
unusual scattering regimes
Design, Concepts and Applications of Electromagnetic Metasurfaces
The paper overviews our recent work on the synthesis of metasurfaces and
related concepts and applications. The synthesis is based on generalized sheet
transition conditions (GSTCs) with a bianisotropic surface susceptibility
tensor model of the metasurface structure. We first place metasurfaces in a
proper historical context and describe the GSTC technique with some fundamental
susceptibility tensor considerations. Upon this basis, we next provide an
in-depth development of our susceptibility-GSTC synthesis technique. Finally,
we present five recent metasurface concepts and applications, which cover the
topics of birefringent transformations, bianisotropic refraction, light
emission enhancement, remote spatial processing and nonlinear second-harmonic
generation
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