17 research outputs found

    Modelling and Characterization of Guiding Micro-structured Devices for Integrated Optics

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    In this thesis we show several modelling tools which are used to study nonlinear photonic band-gap structures and microcavities. First of all a nonlinear CMT and BPM were implemented to test the propagation of spatial solitons in a periodic device, composed by an array of parallel straight waveguides. In addition to noteworthy theoretical considerations, active functionalities are possible by exploiting these nonlinear regimes. Another algorithm was developed for the three-dimensional modelling of photonic cavities with cylindrical symmetry, such as microdisks. This method is validated by comparison with FDTD. We also show the opportunity to confine a field in a region of low refractive index lying in the centre of a silicon microdisk. High Q-factor and small mode volumes are achieved. Finally the characterization of microdisks in SOI with Q-factor larger than 50000 is presente

    Finite-Difference Frequency-Domain Method in Nanophotonics

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    Assessment and control of transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow

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    Transition to turbulence in shear flows is a puzzling problem regarding the motion of fluids flowing, for example, through the pipe (pipe flow), as in oil pipelines or blood vessels, or confined between two counter-moving walls (plane Couette flow). In this kind of flows, the initially laminar (ordered and layered) state of fluid motion is linearly stable, but turbulent (disordered and swirling) flows can also be observed if a suitable perturbation is imposed. This thesis concerns the assessment of transitional properties of such flows in the uncontrolled and controlled environments allowing for the quantitative comparisons of control strategies aimed at suppressing or trigerring transition to turbulence. Efficient finite-amplitude perturbations typically take the form of small patches of turbulence embedded in the laminar flow and called turbulent spots. Using direct numerical simulations, the nonlinear dynamics of turbulent spots, modelled as exact solutions, is investigated in the transitional regime of plane Couette flow and a detailed map of dynamics encompassing the main features found in transitional shear flows (self-sustained cycles, front propagation and spot splitting) is built. The map represents a quantitative assessment of transient dynamics of turbulent spots as a dependence of the relaminarisation time, i.e. the time it takes for a finite-amplitude perturbation, added to the laminar flow, to decay, on the Reynolds number and the width of a localised perturbation. By applying a simple passive control strategy, sinusoidal wall oscillations, the change in the spot dynamics with respect to the amplitude and frequency of the wall oscillations is assessed by the re-evaluation of the relaminarisation time for few selected localised initial conditions. Finally, a probabilistic protocol for the assessment of transition to turbulence and its control is suggested. The protocol is based on the calculation of the laminarisation probability, i.e. the probability that a random perturbation decays as a function of its energy. It is used to assess the robustness of the laminar flow to finite-amplitude perturbations in transitional plane Couette flow in a small computational domain in the absence of control and under the action of sinusoidal wall oscillations. The protocol is expected to be useful for a wide range of nonlinear systems exhibiting finite-amplitude instability

    Self-adaptive isogeometric spatial discretisations of the first and second-order forms of the neutron transport equation with dual-weighted residual error measures and diffusion acceleration

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    As implemented in a new modern-Fortran code, NURBS-based isogeometric analysis (IGA) spatial discretisations and self-adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithms are developed in the application to the first-order and second-order forms of the neutron transport equation (NTE). These AMR algorithms are shown to be computationally efficient and numerically accurate when compared to standard approaches. IGA methods are very competitive and offer certain unique advantages over standard finite element methods (FEM), not least of all because the numerical analysis is performed over an exact representation of the underlying geometry, which is generally available in some computer-aided design (CAD) software description. Furthermore, mesh refinement can be performed within the analysis program at run-time, without the need to revisit any ancillary mesh generator. Two error measures are described for the IGA-based AMR algorithms, both of which can be employed in conjunction with energy-dependent meshes. The first heuristically minimises any local contributions to the global discretisation error, as per some appropriate user-prescribed norm. The second employs duality arguments to minimise important local contributions to the error as measured in some quantity of interest; this is commonly known as a dual-weighted residual (DWR) error measure and it demands the solution to both the forward (primal) and the adjoint (dual) NTE. Finally, convergent and stable diffusion acceleration and generalised minimal residual (GMRes) algorithms, compatible with the aforementioned AMR algorithms, are introduced to accelerate the convergence of the within-group self-scattering sources for scattering-dominated problems for the first and second-order forms of the NTE. A variety of verification benchmark problems are analysed to demonstrate the computational performance and efficiency of these acceleration techniques.Open Acces

    Eigenmode Analysis in Plasmonics: Application to Second Harmonic Generation and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

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    Eigenmodes are central to the study of resonant phenomena in all areas of physics. However, their use in nano-optics seems to have been hindered and delayed for various reasons. First, due to their small size, the response of nanostructures to a far-field optical excitation is mainly dipolar. Thus, preliminary studies of nanosystems through optical methods meant that only very few eigenmodes of the system were probed, and a complete eigenmode theory was not required. Second, rigorously defining eigenmodes of an open and lossy cavity is far from trivial. Finally, only few geometries allow for an analytical solution of Maxwellâs equations that can be expressed in terms of modes, rendering the use of numerical methods mandatory to study non-trivial shapes. On the other hand, modern spectroscopy techniques based on fast electron excitation, instead of optical excitation, allow going beyond the above-mentioned dipolar regime and enable the observation of high order modes. In addition, the generation of second harmonic light (SHG) by nanoparticles permits revealing higher order modes that weakly couple to planewave far-field probing. Thus, to be able to analyze the data collected with such experimental methods and comprehend them in order to make appropriate nanostructure designs, one needs to develop suitable numerical tools for the computation of eigenmodes. This is the focus of this thesis, where eigenmodes are used throughout to analyze and understand experimental and numerical results. First, different approaches used to define and compute eigenmodes are presented in details together with the surface integral equation method used in this manuscript. The second chapter presents the use of eigenmodes to study the SHG in plasmonic nanostructures. A single mode is used as an SHG source to disentangle the modal contributions from different SHG channels. For three different nanostructures, the dipolar mode gives a pure quadrupolar second harmonic (SH) response. Then, the interplay of dipolar and quadrupolar SH radiations in nanorods of different sizes is revealed through a multipolar analysis, explaining the experimental observation of the flip between forward and backward maximum SH emissions. Finally, the dynamics of the SHG from a silver nanorod generated by short pulses is investigated. By tuning the spectral position and width of the pulses, the dynamics of a single mode is observed, both in the linear and SH responses, and fits extremely well with a harmonic oscillator model. The last chapter presents the utilization of the eigenmodes to interpret electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements. An alternative approach to compute EELS signal is presented, revealing the different paths through which the energy of the electron is dissipated. Instead of computing the work done by the electron against the scattered electric field, the Ohmic and the radiation losses are evaluated. Then, heterodimers with several shapes and compositions are studied. A rich variety of modes is found, due to the additional degree of freedom associated with the different metals. Dolmen shaped nanostructures are also investigated in great details. A rigorous analysis of the eigenmode evolution when the central horizontal nanorod is moved is performed. Finally, we study the EELS for three iterations of a Koch snowflake nanoantenna. The evolution of the modes with the iteration of the fractal is analysed and the modes are linked to the experimental EELS ma

    Preconditioning of Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin Discretizations of the Navier-Stokes Equations

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    The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are of major interest due to their importance in modelling fluid flow problems. However, solving the Navier-Stokes equations is a difficult task. To address this problem, in this thesis, we consider fast and efficient solvers. We are particularly interested in solving a new class of hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) discretizations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, as these discretizations result in exact mass conservation, are locally conservative, and have fewer degrees of freedom than discontinuous Galerkin methods (which is typically used for advection dominated flows). To achieve this goal, we have made various contributions to related problems, as I discuss next. Firstly, we consider the solution of matrices with 2x2 block structure. We are interested in this problem as many discretizations of the Navier-Stokes equations result in block linear systems of equations, especially discretizations based on mixed-finite element methods like HDG. These systems also arise in other areas of computational mathematics, such as constrained optimization problems, or the implicit or steady state treatment of any system of PDEs with multiple dependent variables. Often, these systems are solved iteratively using Krylov methods and some form of block preconditioner. Under the assumption that one diagonal block is inverted exactly, we prove a direct equivalence between convergence of 2x2 block preconditioned Krylov or fixed-point iterations to a given tolerance, with convergence of the underlying preconditioned Schur-complement problem. In particular, results indicate that an effective Schur-complement preconditioner is a necessary and sufficient condition for rapid convergence of 2x2 block-preconditioned GMRES, for arbitrary relative-residual stopping tolerances. A number of corollaries and related results give new insight into block preconditioning, such as the fact that approximate block-LDU or symmetric block-triangular preconditioners offer minimal reduction in iteration over block-triangular preconditioners, despite the additional computational cost. We verify the theoretical results numerically on an HDG discretization of the steady linearized Navier--Stokes equations. The findings also demonstrate that theory based on the assumption of an exact inverse of one diagonal block extends well to the more practical setting of inexact inverses. Secondly, as an initial step towards solving the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations, we investigate the efficiency, robustness, and scalability of approximate ideal restriction (AIR) algebraic multigrid as a preconditioner in the all-at-once solution of a space-time HDG discretization of the scalar advection-diffusion equation. The motivation for this study is two-fold. First, the HDG discretization of the velocity part of the momentum block of the linearized Navier-Stokes equations is the HDG discretization of the vector advection-diffusion equation. Hence, efficient and fast solution of the advection-diffusion problem is a prerequisite for developing fast solvers for the Navier-Stokes equations. The second reason to study this all-at-once space-time problem is that the time-dependent advection-diffusion equation can be seen as a ``steady'' advection-diffusion problem in (d+1)-dimensions and AIR has been shown to be a robust solver for steady advection-dominated problems. We present numerical examples which demonstrate the effectiveness of AIR as a preconditioner for time-dependent advection-diffusion problems on fixed and time-dependent domains, using both slab-by-slab and all-at-once space-time discretizations, and in the context of uniform and space-time adaptive mesh refinement. A closer look at the geometric coarsening structure that arises in AIR also explains why AIR can provide robust, scalable space-time convergence on advective and hyperbolic problems, while most multilevel parallel-in-time schemes struggle with such problems. As the final topic of this thesis, we extend two state-of-the-art preconditioners for the Navier-Stokes equations, namely, the pressure convection-diffusion and the grad-div/augmented Lagrangian preconditioners to HDG discretizations. Our preconditioners are simple to implement, and our numerical results show that these preconditioners are robust in h and only mildly dependent on the Reynolds numbers
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