arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Akhlesh Lakhtakia.
As the variation of temperature alters the intrinsic carrier density in a semiconductor, numerical simulations indicate that the consequent variation of the relative permittivity in the terahertz regime provides a way to realize thermally tunable split-ring resonators. Electromagnetic metasurfaces and metamaterials that are thermally tunable in the terahertz regime can thus be implemented.
We studied a metasurface constituted as a periodic array of semiconductor split-ring resonators. The resonance frequencies of the metasurface excited by normally incident light were found to be continuously tunable in the terahertz regime through an external magnetostatic field of suitable orientation. As such metasurfaces can be assembled into 3D metamaterials, the foregoing conclusion also applies to metamaterials comprising semiconductor split-ring resonators.
The dyadic Green functions for a uniaxial dielectric-magnetic medium, together with a reversible field transformation, were implemented to derive a formulation of the Huygens principle appropriate to a uniaxial dielectric-magnetic medium with gyrotropic-like magnetoelectric properties.
Describing the phenomenon of total internal reflection in terms of a reflection coefficient of unit magnitude, we found that, not only can propagating plane waves be total internally reflected at the planar interface of two dissimilar, homogeneous, isotropic dielectric-magnetic mediums, but evanescent plane waves can also be. The refracting medium must be the optically denser of the two mediums for total internal reflection of an evanescent plane wave to occur.
When a sculptured thin film (STF), made of a metal and $\leq50$ nm thick, is used in lieu of a dense layer of metal in the Kretschmann configuration, experimental data for an STF comprising parallel tilted nanowires shows that a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) can still be excited. As the porosity of the chosen STF increases, experimental data and numerical simulations indicate the SPR dip with respect to the angle of incidence of the exciting plane wave widens and eventually disappears, leaving behind a a vestigial peak near the onset to the total-internal-reflection regime.
Two choices are possible for the refractive index of a linear, homogeneous, isotropic, active, dielectric material. Either of the choices is adequate for obtaining frequency-domain solutions for (i) scattering by slabs, spheres, and other objects of bounded extent; (ii) guided-wave propagation in homogeneously filled, cross-sectionally uniform, straight waveguide sections with perfectly conducting walls; and (iii) image formation due to flat lenses. The correct choice does matter for the half-space problem, but that problem is not realistic.
The solution of a boundary-value problem formulated for a modified Kretschmann configuration shows that the phase speed of a surface-plasmon wave guided by the planar interface of a sufficiently thin metal film and a chiral sculptured thin film (STF) depends on the vapor incidence angle used while fabricating the chiral STF by physical vapor depoistion. Therefore, it may be possible to engineer the phase speed quite simply by selecting an appropriate value of the vapor deposition angle (in addition to the metal and the evaporant species).
Application of the differential method (also called the C method) to plane-wave diffraction by a perfectly conducting, sinusoidally corrugated metallic grating coated with a linear, homogeneous, isotropic, lossless dielectric-magnetic material shows that coating materials with negative index of refraction may deliver enhanced maximum nonspecular reflection efficiencies in comparison to coating materials with positive index of refraction.
The four wavenumbers associated with planewave propagation in a Faraday chiral medium (FCM) with relatively huge magnetoelectric coupling give rise to enhanced possibilities for negative-phase-velocity propagation and therefore negative refraction. They can also give rise to the phenomenon of negative reflection. In particular, for a nondissipative example, we deduced that an incident plane wave with positive/negative phase velocity can result in a negatively reflected plane wave with negative/positive phase velocity, as well as a positively reflected plane wave with positive/negative phase velocity.
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the interface of a columnar thin film (CTF) and metal exist over a range of propagation directions relative to the morphology of the CTF which depends on the tilt of the columns in the CTF. The phase speed of the SPP wave varies mainly as a function of the tilt of the CTF columns. Both the confinement of the SPP wave to the interface and the decay of the SPP wave along the direction of propagation depend strongly on the direction of propagation relative to the morphologically significant plane of the CTF. The greater the columnar tilt in relation to the interface, the shorter is the range of propagation. Because of its porosity and the ability to engineer this biaxial dielectric material, the CTF-metal interface may be more attractive than traditional methods of producing SPPs.
The Pockels effect can increase the effective birefringence of ambichiral, electro--optic rejection filters made of materials with a $\bar{4}2m$ point group symmetry, when a dc electric field is applied parallel to the axis of nonhomogeneity. The reflectances and the transmittances of such an ambichiral structure for obliquely incident plane waves is solvable through a boundary-value problem that is formulated using the frequency-domain Maxwell equations, the constitutive equations that contain the Pockels effect, and standard algebraic techniques for handling 4x4 matrix ordinary differential equations. The Bragg resonance peaks, for different circular-polarized-incidence conditions, blueshift as the angle of incidence increases. These blueshifts are unaffected by the sign of the dc electric field.
The selection of a higher vapor deposition angle when growing a columnar thin film (CTF) leads to surface-wave propagation at a planar metal-CTF interface with phase velocity of lower magnitude and shorter propagation range. Acordingly, a higher angle of plane-wave incidence is required to excite that surface wave in a modified Kretschmann configuration.
Surface waves, named here as Dyakonov-Tamm waves, can exist at the planar interface of an isotropic dielectric material and a chiral sculptured thin film (STF). Due to the periodic nonhomogeneity of a chiral STF, the range of the refractive index of the isotropic material is smaller but the range of the propagation direction in the interface plane is much larger, in comparison to those for the existence of Dyakonov waves at the planar interface of an isotropic dielectric material and a columnar thin film.
The solution of a boundary-value problem formulated for a modified Kretschmann configuration shows that a surface-plasmon wave can be excited at the planar interface of a sufficiently thin metal film and a nondissipative structurally chiral medium, provided the exciting plane wave is p-polarized. An estimate of the wavenumber of the surface-plasmon wave also emerges thereby.
The refractive index of a dielectric medium comprising both passive and inverted components in its permittivity was determined using two methods: (i) in the time domain, a finite-difference algorithm to compute the frequency-domain reflectance from reflection data for a pulsed plane wave that is normally incident on a dielectric half-space, and (ii) in the frequency domain, the deflection of an obliquely incident Gaussian beam on transmission through a dielectric slab. The dielectric medium was found to be an active medium with a negative real part for its refractive index. Thereby, a recent controversy in the scientific literature was resolved.
Analysis of electromagnetic planewave propagation in a medium which is a spatiotemporally homogeneous, temporally nonlocal, isotropic, chiral medium in a co-moving frame of reference shows that the medium is both spatially and temporally nonlocal with respect to all non-co-moving inertial frames of reference. Using the Lorentz transformations of electric and magnetic fields, we show that plane waves which have positive phase velocity in the co-moving frame of reference can have negative phase velocity in certain non-co-moving frames of reference. Similarly, plane waves which have negative phase velocity in the co-moving frame can have positive phase velocity in certain non-co-moving frames.
The phase velocity of light is co-parallel to the direction of energy flow in classical vacuum. However, in certain uncommon materials, these two vectors can be oppositely directed, in which case the phase velocity is termed `negative'. This negative phase velocity (NPV) gives rise to many exotic phenomenons, such as negative refraction, inverse Doppler shift and inverse Cerenkov radiation, and has technological allure. According to quantum electrodynamics, the presence of a magnetostatic field makes vacuum an anisotropic medium for the passage of light. Under the influence of a sufficiently strong magnetostatic field, vacuum supports NPV. Such ultrastrong magnetic fields are believed to arise due to dynamo action in newborn neutron stars and in binary neutron star mergers, for examples. In view of the possible occurrence of negative refraction, the influence of ultrastrong magnetostatic fields must be carefully taken into account in astronomical observations relating to neutron stars and associated gamma-ray bursts.
When a strong magnetostatic field is present, vacuum effectively appears as a linear, uniaxial, dielectric-magnetic medium for small-magnitude optical fields. The availability of the frequency-domain dyadic Green function when the magnetostatic field is spatially uniform facilitates the formulation of an integral equation for the scattering of an optical field by a spatially varying magnetostatic field in vacuum. This integral equation can be numerically treated by using the method of moments as well as the coupled dipole method. Furthermore, the principle underlying the strong-property-fluctuation theory allows the homogenization of a spatially varying magnetostatic field in the context of light scattering.