32 research outputs found
Manifestation of photonic band structure in small clusters of spherical particles
We study the formation of the photonic band structure in small clusters of
dielectric spheres. The first signs of the band structure, an attribute of an
infinite crystal, can appear for clusters of 5 particles. Density of resonant
states of a cluster of 32 spheres may exhibit a well defined structure similar
to the density of electromagnetic states of the infinite photonic crystal. The
resonant mode structure of finite-size aggregates is shown to be insensitive to
random displacements of particles off the perfect lattice positions as large as
half-radius of the particle. The results were obtained by an efficient
numerical method, which relates the density of resonant states to the the
scattering coefficients of the electromagnetic scattering problem. Generalized
multisphere Mie (GMM) solution was used to obtain scattering matrix elements.
These results are important to miniature photonic crystal design as well as
understanding of light localization in dense random media.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Resonant Photonic Quasicrystalline and Aperiodic Structures
We have theoretically studied propagation of exciton-polaritons in
deterministic aperiodic multiple-quantum-well structures, particularly, in the
Fibonacci and Thue-Morse chains. The attention is concentrated on the
structures tuned to the resonant Bragg condition with two-dimensional
quantum-well exciton. The superradiant or photonic-quasicrystal regimes are
realized in these structures depending on the number of the wells. The
developed theory based on the two-wave approximation allows one to describe
analytically the exact transfer-matrix computations for transmittance and
reflectance spectra in the whole frequency range except for a narrow region
near the exciton resonance. In this region the optical spectra and the
exciton-polariton dispersion demonstrate scaling invariance and self-similarity
which can be interpreted in terms of the ``band-edge'' cycle of the trace map,
in the case of Fibonacci structures, and in terms of zero reflection
frequencies, in the case of Thue-Morse structures.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Photonic molecules and spectral engineering
This chapter reviews the fundamental optical properties and applications of
pho-tonic molecules (PMs) - photonic structures formed by electromagnetic
coupling of two or more optical microcavities (photonic atoms). Controllable
interaction between light and matter in photonic atoms can be further modified
and en-hanced by the manipulation of their mutual coupling. Mechanical and
optical tunability of PMs not only adds new functionalities to
microcavity-based optical components but also paves the way for their use as
testbeds for the exploration of novel physical regimes in atomic physics and
quantum optics. Theoretical studies carried on for over a decade yielded novel
PM designs that make possible lowering thresholds of semiconductor microlasers,
producing directional light emission, achieving optically-induced transparency,
and enhancing sensitivity of microcavity-based bio-, stress- and
rotation-sensors. Recent advances in material science and nano-fabrication
techniques make possible the realization of optimally-tuned PMs for cavity
quantum electrodynamic experiments, classical and quantum information
processing, and sensing.Comment: A review book chapter: 29 pages, 19 figure
Improved accuracy of co-morbidity coding over time after the introduction of ICD-10 administrative data
BACKGROUND: Co-morbidity information derived from administrative data needs to be validated to allow its regular use. We assessed evolution in the accuracy of coding for Charlson and Elixhauser co-morbidities at three time points over a 5-year period, following the introduction of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), coding of hospital discharges.METHODS: Cross-sectional time trend evaluation study of coding accuracy using hospital chart data of 3'499 randomly selected patients who were discharged in 1999, 2001 and 2003, from two teaching and one non-teaching hospital in Switzerland. We measured sensitivity, positive predictive and Kappa values for agreement between administrative data coded with ICD-10 and chart data as the 'reference standard' for recording 36 co-morbidities.RESULTS: For the 17 the Charlson co-morbidities, the sensitivity - median (min-max) - was 36.5% (17.4-64.1) in 1999, 42.5% (22.2-64.6) in 2001 and 42.8% (8.4-75.6) in 2003. For the 29 Elixhauser co-morbidities, the sensitivity was 34.2% (1.9-64.1) in 1999, 38.6% (10.5-66.5) in 2001 and 41.6% (5.1-76.5) in 2003. Between 1999 and 2003, sensitivity estimates increased for 30 co-morbidities and decreased for 6 co-morbidities. The increase in sensitivities was statistically significant for six conditions and the decrease significant for one. Kappa values were increased for 29 co-morbidities and decreased for seven.CONCLUSIONS: Accuracy of administrative data in recording clinical conditions improved slightly between 1999 and 2003. These findings are of relevance to all jurisdictions introducing new coding systems, because they demonstrate a phenomenon of improved administrative data accuracy that may relate to a coding 'learning curve' with the new coding system
Lower bound for the spatial extent of localized modes in photonic-crystal waveguides with small random imperfections
Light localization due to random imperfections in periodic media is paramount in photonics research. The group index is known to be a key parameter for localization near photonic band edges, since small group velocities reinforce light interaction with imperfections. Here, we show that the size of the smallest localized mode that is formed at the band edge of a one-dimensional periodic medium is driven instead by the effective photon mass, i.e. the flatness of the dispersion curve. Our theoretical prediction is supported by numerical simulations, which reveal that photonic-crystal waveguides can exhibit surprisingly small localized modes, much smaller than those observed in Bragg stacks thanks to their larger effective photon mass. This possibility is demonstrated experimentally with a photonic-crystal waveguide fabricated without any intentional disorder, for which near-field measurements allow us to distinctly observe a wavelength-scale localized mode despite the smallness (∼1/1000 of a wavelength) of the fabrication imperfections
A framework for human microbiome research
A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies