Enhancing the photomixing efficiency of optoelectronic devices in the terahertz regime

A method to reduce the transit time of majority of carriers in photomixers and photo detectors to $< 1$ ps is proposed. Enhanced optical fields associated with surface plasmon polaritons, coupled with velocity overshoot phenomenon results in net decrease of transit time of carriers. As an example, model calculations demonstrating $> 280\times$ (or $\sim$2800 and 31.8 $\mu$W at 1 and 5 THz respectively) improvement in THz power generation efficiency of a photomixer based on Low Temperature grown GaAs are presented. Due to minimal dependence on the carrier recombination time, it is anticipated that the proposed method paves the way for enhancing the speed and efficiency of photomixers and detectors covering UV to far infrared communications wavelengths (300 to 1600 nm).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Negative Refraction and Subwavelength Lensing in a Polaritonic Crystal

We show that a two-dimensional polaritonic crystal, made of metallic rods that support well defined plasmon oscillations, can act in a narrow frequency range as a medium in which a negative refraction and subwavelength lensing can occur. We show that surface modes are excited on the surface of the lens, and that they facilitate restoration of the evanescent waves, which carry the subwavelength image information. We demonstrate that this can occur in the visible frequency range, for a wide range of materials, including silver and aluminum rods, and carbon nanotubes. This flexibility should allow for an experimental demonstration of this phenomenon in the visible frequency range.Comment: 14 pages; 4 figure

Complexity of 2D random laser modes at the transition from weak scattering to Anderson localization

The spatial extension and complexity of the eigenfunctions of an open finite-size two-dimensional (2D) random system are systematically studied for a random collection of systems ranging from weakly scattering to localized. The eigenfunctions are obtained by introducing gain in the medium and pumping just above threshold. All lasing modes are found to correspond to quasimodes of the passive system, for all regimes of propagation. We demonstrate the existence of multipeaked quasimodes or necklace states in 2D at the transition from localized to diffusive, resulting from the coupling of localized states.Comment: Submitted to PR

Surface-mode microcavity

Optical microcavities based on zero-group-velocity surface modes in photonic crystal slabs are studied. It is shown that high quality factors can be easily obtained for such microcavities in photonic crystal slabs. With increasing of the cavity length, the quality factor is gradually enhanced and the resonant frequency converges to that of the zero-group-velocity surface mode in the photonic crystal. The number of the resonant modes with high quality factors is mainly determined by the number of surface modes with zero-group velocity.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Conditions for waveguide decoupling in square-lattice photonic crystals

We study coupling and decoupling of parallel waveguides in two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystals. We show that the waveguide coupling is prohibited at some wavelengths when there is an odd number of rows between the waveguides. In contrast, decoupling does not take place when there is even number of rows between the waveguides. Decoupling can be used to avoid cross talk between adjacent waveguides.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Dispersive Cylindrical Cloaks under Non-Monochromatic Illumination

Transformation-based cylindrical cloaks and concentrators are illuminated with non-monochromatic waves and unusual effects are observed with interesting potential applications. The transient responses of the devices are studied numerically with the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method and the results are verified with analytical formulas. We compute the effective bandwidth of several cloaking schemes as well as the effect of losses on the performance of the structures. We also find that narrowband behavior, frequency shift effects, time delays and spatial disturbances of the incoming waves are dominant due to the inherently dispersive nature of the devices. These effects are important and should be taken into account when designing metamaterial-based devices.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Lasing in metamaterial nanostructures

A self-consistent computational scheme is presented for one dimensional (1D) and two dimensional (2D) metamaterial systems with gain incorporated into the nanostructures. The gain is described by a generic four-level system. The loss compensation and the lasing behavior of the metamaterial system with gain are studied. A critical pumping rate exists for compensating the losses of the metamaterial. There exists a wide range of input signals where the composite system behaves linearly. Nonlinearities arise for stronger signals due to gain depletion. The retrieved effective parameters are presented for one layer of gain embedded in two layers of Lorentz dielectric rods and split ring resonators with two different gain inclusions: (1) gain is embedded in the gaps only and (2) gain is surrounding the SRR. When the pumping rate increases, there is a critical pumping rate that the metamaterial system starts lasing.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optic

Light diffusion and localization in 3D nonlinear disordered media

Using a 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain parallel code, we report on the linear and nonlinear propagation of light pulses in a disordered assembly of scatterers, whose spatial distribution is generated by a Molecular Dynamics code; refractive index dispersion is also taken into account. We calculate the static and dynamical diffusion constant of light, while considering a pulsed excitation. Our results are in quantitative agreement with reported experiments, also furnishing evidence of a non-exponential decay of the transmitted pulse in the linear regime and in the presence of localized modes. By using an high power excitation, we numerically demonstrate the ``modulational instability random laser'': at high peak input powers energy is transferred to localized states from the input pulse, via third-order nonlinearity and optical parametric amplification, and this process is signed by a power-dependent non-exponential time-decay of the transmitted pulse.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Revised version with new figure 4 with localized state

Self-consistent calculation of metamaterials with gain

We present a computational scheme allowing for a self-consistent treatment of a dispersive metallic photonic metamaterial coupled to a gain material incorporated into the nanostructure. The gain is described by a generic four-level system. A critical pumping rate exists for compensating the loss of the metamaterial. Nonlinearities arise due to gain depletion beyond a certain critical strength of a test field. Transmission, reflection, and absorption data as well as the retrieved effective parameters are presented for a lattice of resonant square cylinders embedded in layers of gain material and split ring resonators with gain material embedded into the gaps.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Finite-size effects of a left-handed material slab on the image quality

The characteristics of an imaging system formed by a left-handed material (LHM) slab of finite length are studied, and the influence of the finite length of the slab on the image quality is analyzed. Unusual phenomena such as surface bright spots and negative energy stream at the image side are observed and explained as the cavity effects of surface plasmons excited by the evanescent components of the incident field. For a thin LHM slab, the cavity effects are found rather sensitive to the length of the slab, and the bright spots on the bottom surface of the slab may stretch to the image plane and degrade the image quality.Comment: changes in the content and the title, and also the figure