arXiv subjects

Kevin Vynck

Publications and source records attributed to Kevin Vynck.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A dressed polarizability framework for interface-coupled meta-atoms and large-scale metasurfaces

The modeling of large collections of interacting meta-atoms remains a central challenge in photonics because it requires the simultaneous treatment of complex scatterer geometries, multiple scattering, and heterogeneous environments. Here, we introduce the dressed Global Polarizability Matrix (dGPM), a reduced-order electromagnetic framework in which complex meta-atoms are represented by compact scattering operators that explicitly incorporate the influence of nearby interfaces. The dGPM accurately reconstructs near- and far-field electromagnetic responses for interface-coupled structures, including geometries beyond the practical applicability of conventional T-matrix approaches. The framework naturally combines interface-coupled and free-space scatterers within a unified multiple-scattering formalism and enables simulations of large ordered and disordered metasurfaces. More broadly, the dGPM extends operator-based electromagnetic modeling to heterogeneous photonic environments while preserving a compact scatterer-based representation, providing an efficient framework for the simulation and design of large-scale photonic systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Structural color palette of disordered colloids in the Rayleigh scattering regime

Structural coloration by Rayleigh scattering is widespread in nature and holds a prominent place in various art objects over a broad period of time. Beyond the common statement that Rayleigh scattering is the primary mechanism behind the multiple colored appearances of the sky, it appears that the relationship between material parameters and the colors appearing in different observation conditions has not been thoroughly explored so far. This study provides a comprehensive overview of Rayleigh scattering-based structural colors as functions of key material properties, and introduces a scalable, environmentally friendly method to fabricate solid composites with targeted colors in both reflection and transmission. Monte Carlo light transport simulations are performed to compute the structural color palette of disordered colloids -- dielectric particles in a nonscattering matrix -- in different observation modes. We provide a range of physical parameters in which the materials exhibit the same blue color in diffuse reflection and transmission. We also show that, counterintuitively, the addition of black absorbents to the matrix of a white (opaque) material can lead to the emergence of a blue coloration in diffuse reflection, thanks to the interplay between multiple scattering and absorption. Our predictions are validated by optical experiments on colloidal suspensions of Yttria-stabilized Zirconia (ZrO$_2$:Y$_2$O$_3$) nanoparticles in aqueous solutions. The potential of Rayleigh-scattering materials for visual arts and design is further supported by realizing solid-state composites based on abundant materials, namely borosilicate clays and hybrid silica-based glasses, using soft chemistry at room temperature.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Emergent scattering regimes in disordered metasurfaces near critical packing

Disordered metasurfaces provide a versatile platform for harnessing near- and far-field scattered light. Most research has focused on either particulate topologies composed of individual, well-identified metaatoms or, to a lesser extent, semi-continuous aggregate topologies without well identified inclusions. Here, we uncover an intermediate critical packing regime characterized by metasurface morphologies in which a significant fraction of metaatoms begin to connect. We experimentally demonstrate that, at this threshold, the properties of the scattered light abruptly change and, via a statistical quasinormal mode analysis, interpret this change as a marked transition in the statistics of the photon density of states. Unlike percolation in semicontinuous metal films, this transition affects not only the specular but also the diffuse components of the scattered light in a profound way. Our results introduce critical packing topologies as a novel design strategy for manipulating the spectral and angular characteristics of light using ultrathin optical coatings. Emergent functionalities include colour shifts in diffuse light driven by multiple scattering and surface whitening, with potential applications in display technologies, for example, to reduce glare in electronic screens.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Quasiannealed Monte Carlo method for light transport in strongly heterogeneous media

Random-walk Monte Carlo simulations are widely used to predict the optical properties of complex, disordered materials. In presence of large heterogeneities (e.g., spatially-extended nonscattering regions in a turbid environment), an explicit description of the micro and macrostructures and of the light propagation therein is generally required, in addition to a statistical average over a representative set of microstructures, thereby making simulations in so-called ``quenched'' disorder particularly time-consuming. We explore here the possibility to model light transport in finite-size strongly heterogeneous media without an explicit description of the underlying microstructure but from the knowledge of typical random-walk trajectories in infinite-size media, that take correlations between successive interaction events into account. Simulations may thus be performed for media of any macroscopic shape and size more efficiently. We illustrate this approach, coined ``quasiannealed'', with the case of a two-phase emulsion consisting of transparent spherical droplets dispersed in a turbid medium. Good agreement with predictions from simulations in quenched disorder on the reflectance of finite-thickness slab is found for a large set of microstructure properties and thicknesses with typical errors on the reflectance on the order of a percent.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

T-matrix representation of optical scattering response: Suggestion for a data format

The transition matrix, frequently abbreviated as T-matrix, contains the complete information in a linear approximation of how a spatially localized object scatters an incident field. The T-matrix is used to study the scattering response of an isolated object and describes the optical response of complex photonic materials made from ensembles of individual objects. T-matrices of certain common structures, potentially, have been repeatedly calculated all over the world again and again. This is not necessary and constitutes a major challenge for various reasons. First, the resources spent on their computation represent an unsustainable financial and ecological burden. Second, with the onset of machine learning, data is the gold of our era, and it should be freely available to everybody to address novel scientific challenges. Finally, the possibility of reproducing simulations could tremendously improve if the considered T-matrices could be shared. To address these challenges, we found it important to agree on a common data format for T-matrices and to enable their collection from different sources and distribution. This document aims to develop the specifications for storing T-matrices and associated metadata. The specifications should allow maximum freedom to accommodate as many use cases as possible without introducing any ambiguity in the stored data. The common format will assist in setting up a public database of T-matrices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Effective medium description of dense clusters of plasmonic nanoparticles with spatial dispersion

We study the electromagnetic behaviour of dense, spherical clusters made of hundreds of plasmonic nanoparticules under illumination by a plane wave. Using high-precision T-matrix numerical calculations, we compute the multipolar response of clusters up to 80 nm in radius and up to 44\% in particle volume fraction. We then investigate whether it is possible to obtain an effective medium description for the clusters, taking into account weak spatial dispersion in a fully consistent way. We find that the average scattered field as well as the average inner field of the spherical cluster can be accurately reproduced by applying an extended Mie theory to an equivalent homogeneous sphere characterized by three effective parameters: an electric permittivity $\varepsilon_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and a magnetic permeability $\mu_{\mathrm{eff}}$, associated to transverse modes, and a wavevector $k_\mathrm{L}$, associated to a longitudinal mode in the sphere. Our results show that artificial magnetism arises from interparticle couplings in the dense cluster, despite inclusions not displaying any individual magnetic dipole. We also find that, although largely overlooked in the literature on metamaterials, the presence of the longitudinal mode is essential to accurately reproduce the fields of the cluster, on par with the role of artificial magnetism. Our study therefore proves that, even for high concentration in inclusions, it is possible empirically to treat a cluster of plasmonic particles as a sphere made of a spatially-dispersive homogeneous medium. This offers a practical solution facilitating the computation of electromagnetic responses of such dense random media in diverse configurations of interest for the design of metamaterials and metasurfaces.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Specular reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves by disordered metasurfaces

Planar, disordered assemblies of small particles incorporated in layered media -- sometimes called ``disordered metasurfaces'' in the recent literature -- are becoming widespread in optics and photonics. Their ability to scatter light with exotic angular and spectral features in reflection and transmission, as well as their suitability to scalable fabrication techniques, makes them promising candidates for certain applications, ranging from thin-film photovoltaics to visual appearance design. This chapter introduces the basic concepts and theoretical models for the specular (a.k.a. coherent) reflectance and transmittance of electromagnetic waves by disordered metasurfaces. After describing the classical scattering formalism for discrete media, we establish known analytical expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients of disordered particle monolayers on layered substrates. Two classical models, based on the independent scattering approximation (ISA) and the effective field approximation (EFA), are presented. Their accuracy is examined by comparing predictions with those obtained from rigorous full-wave computations using an in-house multiple-scattering code. This chapter may serve as a starting point to students and researchers who wish to dive into the topic and explore the potential of disordered metasurfaces for applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

The visual appearances of disordered optical metasurfaces

Nanostructured materials have recently emerged as a promising approach for material appearance design. Research has mainly focused on creating structural colours by wave interference, leaving aside other important aspects that constitute the visual appearance of an object, such as the respective weight of specular and diffuse reflectances, object macroscopic shape, illumination and viewing conditions. Here, we report the potential of disordered optical metasurfaces for harnessing visual appearance. We develop a multiscale modelling platform for the predictive rendering of macroscopic objects covered by metasurfaces in realistic settings, showing how nanoscale resonances and mesoscale interferences can be used to spectrally and angularly shape reflected light and thus create unusual visual effects at the macroscale. We validate this property with realistic synthetic images of macroscopic objects and centimetre-scale samples observable with the naked eye. This framework opens new perspectives in many branches of fine and applied visual arts.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Light in correlated disordered media

The optics of correlated disordered media is a fascinating research topic emerging at the interface between the physics of waves in complex media and nanophotonics. Inspired by photonic structures in nature and enabled by advances in nanofabrication processes, recent investigations have unveiled how the design of structural correlations down to the subwavelength scale could be exploited to control the scattering, transport and localization of light in matter. From optical transparency to superdiffusive light transport to photonic gaps, the optics of correlated disordered media challenges our physical intuition and offers new perspectives for applications. This article reviews the theoretical foundations, state-of-the-art experimental techniques and major achievements in the study of light interaction with correlated disorder, covering a wide range of systems -- from short-range correlated photonic liquids, to L\'evy glasses containing fractal heterogeneities, to hyperuniform disordered photonic materials. The mechanisms underlying light scattering and transport phenomena are elucidated on the basis of rigorous theoretical arguments. We overview the exciting ongoing research on mesoscopic phenomena, such as transport phase transitions and speckle statistics, and the current development of disorder engineering for applications such as light-energy management and visual appearance design. Special efforts are finally made to identify the main theoretical and experimental challenges to address in the near future.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

PyLlama: a stable and versatile Python toolkit for the electromagnetic modeling of multilayered anisotropic media

PyLlama is a handy Python toolkit to compute the electromagnetic reflection and transmission properties of arbitrary multilayered linear media, including the case of anisotropy. Relying on a $4 \times 4$-matrix formalism, PyLlama implements not only the transfer matrix method, that is the most popular choice in existing codes, but also the scattering matrix method, which is numerically stable in all situations (e.g., thick, highly birefringent cholesteric structures at grazing incident angles). PyLlama is also designed to suit the practical needs by allowing the user to create, edit and assemble layers or multilayered domains with great ease. In this article, we present the electromagnetic theory underlying the transfer matrix and scattering matrix methods and outline the architecture and main features of PyLlama. Finally, we validate the code by comparison with available analytical solutions and demonstrate its versatility and numerical stability by modelling cholesteric media of varying complexity. A detailed documentation and tutorial are provided in a separate user manual. Applications of PyLlama range from the design of optical components to the modelling of polaritonic effects in polar crystals, to the study of structurally coloured materials in the living world.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Deep learning enabled design of complex transmission matrices for universal optical components

Recent breakthroughs in photonics-based quantum, neuromorphic and analogue processing have pointed out the need for new schemes for fully programmable nanophotonic devices. Universal optical elements based on interferometer meshes are underpinning many of these new technologies, however this is achieved at the cost of an overall footprint that is very large compared to the limited chip real estate, restricting the scalability of this approach. Here, we consider an ultracompact platform for low-loss programmable elements using the complex transmission matrix of a multi-port multimode waveguide. We propose a deep learning inverse network approach to design arbitrary transmission matrices using patterns of weakly scattering perturbations. The demonstrated technique allows control over both the intensity and phase in a multiport device at a four orders reduced device footprint compared to conventional technologies, thus opening the door for large-scale integrated universal networks.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Intrinsic multipolar contents of nanoresonators for tailored scattering

We introduce a theoretical and computational method to design resonant objects, such as nanoantennas or meta-atoms, exhibiting tailored multipolar responses. In contrast with common approaches that rely on a multipolar analysis of the scattering response of an object upon specific excitations, we propose to engineer the \textit{intrinsic} (i.e., excitation-independent) multipolar content and spectral characteristics of the natural resonances -- or quasinormal modes -- of the object. A rigorous numerical approach for the multipolar decomposition of resonances at complex frequencies is presented, along with an analytical model conveying a direct physical insight into the multipole moments induced in the resonator. Our design strategy is illustrated by designing a subwavelength optical resonator exhibiting a Janus resonance that provides side-dependent coupling to waveguides over the full linewidth of the resonance and on a wide angular range for linearly-polarized incident planewaves. The method applies to all kinds of waves and may open new perspectives for subwavelength-scale manipulation of scattering and emission.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Global polarizability matrix method for efficient modeling of light scattering by dense ensembles of non-spherical particles in stratified media

We introduce a numerical method that enables efficient modelling of light scattering by large, disordered ensembles of non-spherical particles incorporated in stratified media, including when the particles are in close vicinity to each other, to planar interfaces and/or to localized light sources. The method consists in finding a small set of fictitious polarizable elements -- or numerical dipoles -- that quantitatively reproduces the field scattered by an individual particle for any excitation and at an arbitrary distance from the particle surface. The set of numerical dipoles is described by a global polarizability matrix that is determined numerically by solving an inverse problem relying on fullwave simulations. The latter are classical and may be performed with any Maxwell's equations solver. Spatial non-locality is an important feature of the numerical dipoles set, providing additional degrees of freedom compared to classical coupled dipoles to reconstruct complex scattered fields. Once the polarizability matrix describing scattering by an individual particle is determined, the multiple scattering problem by ensembles of such particles in stratified media can be solved using a Green tensor formalism and only few numerical dipoles, thereby with a low physical memory usage, even for dense systems in close vicinity to interfaces. The performance of the method is studied with the example of large high-aspect-ratio high-index dielectric cylinders. The method is easy to implement and may offer new possibilities for the study of complex nanostructured surfaces, which are becoming widespread in emerging photonic technologies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Ultrafast perturbation maps as a quantitative tool for testing of multi-port photonic devices

Advanced photonic probing techniques are of great importance for the development of non-contact wafer-scale testing of photonic chips. Ultrafast photomodulation has been identified as a powerful new tool capable of remotely mapping photonic devices through a scanning perturbation. Here, we develop photomodulation maps into a quantitative technique through a general and rigorous method based on Lorentz reciprocity that allows the prediction of transmittance perturbation maps for arbitrary linear photonic systems with great accuracy and minimal computational cost. Excellent agreement is obtained between predicted and experimental maps of various optical multimode-interference devices, thereby allowing direct comparison of a device under test with a physical model of an ideal design structure. In addition to constituting a promising route for optical testing in photonics manufacturing, ultrafast perturbation mapping may be used for design optimization of photonic structures with reconfigurable functionalities.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Light interaction with photonic and plasmonic resonances

In this Review, the theory and applications of optical micro and nanoresonators are presented from the underlying concept of their natural resonances, the so-called quasi-normal modes (QNMs). The latter are the basic constituents governing the response of resonators. Characterized by complex frequencies, QNMs are initially loaded by a driving field and then decay exponentially in time due to power leakage or absorption. Here, the use of QNM-expansion formalisms to model these basic effects is explored. Such modal expansions that operate at complex frequencies distinguish from the current user habits in electromagnetic modeling, which rely on classical Maxwell equation solvers operating at real frequencies or in the time domain; they also bring much deeper physical insight into the analysis. An extensive overview of the historical background on QNMs in electromagnetism and a detailed discussion of recent relevant theoretical and numerical advances are therefore presented. Additionally, a concise description of the role of QNMs on a number of examples involving electromagnetic resonant fields and matter, including the interaction between quantum emitters and resonators (Purcell effect, weak and strong coupling, superradiance...), Fano interferences, the perturbation of resonance modes, and light transport and localization in disordered media is provided.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Multiple scattering of polarized light in disordered media exhibiting short-range structural correlations

We develop a model based on a multiple scattering theory to describe the diffusion of polarized light in disordered media exhibiting short-range structural correlations. Starting from exact expressions of the average field and the field spatial correlation function, we derive a radiative transfer equation for the polarization-resolved specific intensity that is valid for weak disorder and we solve it analytically in the diffusion limit. A decomposition of the specific intensity in terms of polarization eigenmodes reveals how structural correlations, represented via the standard anisotropic scattering parameter $g$, affect the diffusion of polarized light. More specifically, we find that propagation through each polarization eigenchannel is described by its own transport mean free path that depends on $g$ in a specific and non-trivial way.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

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 ($\sim 1/1000$ of a wavelength) of the fabrication imperfections.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

An all-optical spatial light modulator for field-programmable silicon photonic circuits

Reconfigurable photonic devices capable of routing the flow of light enable flexible integrated-optic circuits that are not hard-wired but can be externally controlled. Analogous to free-space spatial light modulators, we demonstrate all-optical wavefront shaping in integrated silicon-on-insulator photonic devices by modifying the spatial refractive index profile of the device employing ultraviolet pulsed laser excitation. Applying appropriate excitation patterns grants us full control over the optical transfer function of telecommunication-wavelength light travelling through the device, thus allowing us to redefine its functionalities. As a proof-of-concept, we experimentally demonstrate routing of light between the ports of a multimode interference power splitter with more than 97% total efficiency and negligible losses. Wavefront shaping in integrated photonic circuits provides a conceptually new approach toward achieving highly adaptable and field-programmable photonic circuits with applications in optical testing and data communication.

physics.optics↗