5,504 research outputs found
The effectiveness of thin films in lieu of hyperbolic metamaterials in the near field
We show that the near-field functionality of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM),
typically proposed for increasing the photonic local density of states (LDOS),
can be achieved with thin metal films. Although HMMs have an infinite density
of internally-propagating plane-wave states, the external coupling to nearby
emitters is severely restricted. We show analytically that properly designed
thin films, of thicknesses comparable to the metal size of a hyperbolic
metamaterial, yield a LDOS as high as (if not higher than) that of HMMs. We
illustrate these ideas by performing exact numerical computations of the LDOS
of multilayer HMMs, along with their application to the problem of maximizing
near-field heat transfer, to show that thin films are suitable replacements in
both cases.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Fluctuating surface-current formulation of radiative heat transfer: theory and applications
We describe a novel fluctuating-surface current formulation of radiative heat
transfer between bodies of arbitrary shape that exploits efficient and
sophisticated techniques from the surface-integral-equation formulation of
classical electromagnetic scattering. Unlike previous approaches to
non-equilibrium fluctuations that involve scattering matrices---relating
"incoming" and "outgoing" waves from each body---our approach is formulated in
terms of "unknown" surface currents, laying at the surfaces of the bodies, that
need not satisfy any wave equation. We show that our formulation can be applied
as a spectral method to obtain fast-converging semi-analytical formulas in
high-symmetry geometries using specialized spectral bases that conform to the
surfaces of the bodies (e.g. Fourier series for planar bodies or spherical
harmonics for spherical bodies), and can also be employed as a numerical method
by exploiting the generality of surface meshes/grids to obtain results in more
complicated geometries (e.g. interleaved bodies as well as bodies with sharp
corners). In particular, our formalism allows direct application of the
boundary-element method, a robust and powerful numerical implementation of the
surface-integral formulation of classical electromagnetism, which we use to
obtain results in new geometries, including the heat transfer between finite
slabs, cylinders, and cones
Radiative heat transfer in nonlinear Kerr media
We obtain a fluctuation--dissipation theorem describing thermal
electromagnetic fluctuation effects in nonlinear media that we exploit in
conjunction with a stochastic Langevin framework to study thermal radiation
from Kerr () photonic cavities coupled to external environments at
and out of equilibrium. We show that that in addition to thermal broadening due
to two-photon absorption,the emissivity of such cavities can exhibit
asymmetric,non-Lorentzian lineshapes due to self-phase modulation. When the
local temperature of the cavity is larger than that of the external bath, we
find that the heat transfer into the bath exceeds the radiation from a
corresponding linear black body at the same local temperature. We predict that
these temperature-tunable thermal processes can be observed in practical,
nanophotonic cavities operating at relatively small temperatures
Achieving Universal Coverage Through Comprehensive Health Reform: The Vermont Experience
Provides an overview of Vermont's comprehensive health reform and the interim results of a two-year evaluation of its impact on the affordability of coverage and access to services, as well as its sustainability. Discusses lessons learned
High-efficiency degenerate four wave-mixing in triply resonant nanobeam cavities
We demonstrate high-efficiency, degenerate four-wave mixing in triply
resonant Kerr photonic crystal (PhC) nanobeam cavities. Using a
combination of temporal coupled mode theory and nonlinear finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we study the nonlinear dynamics of resonant
four-wave mixing processes and demonstrate the possibility of observing
high-efficiency limit cycles and steady-state conversion corresponding to
% depletion of the pump light at low powers, even including
effects due to losses, self- and cross-phase modulation, and imperfect
frequency matching. Assuming operation in the telecom range, we predict close
to perfect quantum efficiencies at reasonably low 50 mW input powers in
silicon micrometer-scale cavities
Casimir forces in the time domain II: Applications
Our preceding paper introduced a method to compute Casimir forces in
arbitrary geometries and for arbitrary materials that was based on a
finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme. In this manuscript, we focus on
the efficient implementation of our method for geometries of practical interest
and extend our previous proof-of-concept algorithm in one dimension to problems
in two and three dimensions, introducing a number of new optimizations. We
consider Casimir piston-like problems with nonmonotonic and monotonic force
dependence on sidewall separation, both for previously solved geometries to
validate our method and also for new geometries involving magnetic sidewalls
and/or cylindrical pistons. We include realistic dielectric materials to
calculate the force between suspended silicon waveguides or on a suspended
membrane with periodic grooves, also demonstrating the application of PML
absorbing boundaries and/or periodic boundaries. In addition we apply this
method to a realizable three-dimensional system in which a silica sphere is
stably suspended in a fluid above an indented metallic substrate. More
generally, the method allows off-the-shelf FDTD software, already supporting a
wide variety of materials (including dielectric, magnetic, and even anisotropic
materials) and boundary conditions, to be exploited for the Casimir problem.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures. Includes additional examples (dispersive
materials and fully three-dimensional systems
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