Transparent photonic band in metallodielectric nanostructures

Under certain conditions, a transparent photonic band can be designed into a one-dimensional metallodielectric nanofilm structure. Unlike conventional pass bands in photonic crystals, where the finite thickness of the structure affects the transmission of electromagnetic fields having frequency within the pass band, the properties of the transparent band are almost unaffected by the finite thickness of the structure. In other words, an incident field at a frequency within the transparent band exhibits 100% transmission independent of the number of periods of the structure. The transparent photonic band corresponds to excitation of pure eigenstate modes across the entire Bloch band in structures possessing mirror symmetry. The conditions to create these modes and thereby to lead to a totally transparent band phenomenon are discussed.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.

Characteristics of bound modes in coupled dielectric waveguides containing negative index media

We investigate the characteristics of guided wave modes in planar coupled waveguides. In particular, we calculate the dispersion relations for TM modes in which one or both of the guiding layers consists of negative index media (NIM)-where the permittivity and permeability are both negative. We find that the Poynting vector within the NIM waveguide axis can change sign and magnitude, a feature that is reflected in the dispersion curves

Plasmonic Resonances and Electromagnetic Forces Between Coupled Silver Nanowires

We compute the electromagnetic response and corresponding forces between two silver nanowires. The wires are illuminated by a plane wave which has the electric field vector perpendicular to the axis of the wires, insuring that plasmonic resonances can be excited. We consider a nontrivial square cross section geometry that has dimensions on the order of $0.1 \lambda$, where $\lambda$ is the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic field. We find that due to the plasmonic resonance, there occurs great enhancement of the direct and mutual electromagnetic forces that are exerted on the nanowires. The Lippman-Schwinger volume integral equation is implemented to obtain solutions to Maxwell's equations for various $\lambda$ and separation distances between wires. The forces are computed using Maxwell's stress tensor and numerical results are shown for both on and off resonant conditions