arXiv subjects

Z. V. Vardeny

Publications and source records attributed to Z. V. Vardeny.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2001

Random Lasing from Weakly Scattering Media: Universality in the Emission Spectra from Pi-Conjugated Polymer Films

When films of Pi-conjugated polymers are optically excited above a certain threshold intensity, then the emission spectrum acquires a multimode finely structured shape, which depends on the position of the excitation spot. We demonstrate that the power Fourier transform (PFT) of the emission spectrum exhibits a certain peak-like structure, which also depends on the excitation spot. Our intriguing observation is that averaging the individual PFTs does not lead to a structureless curve, but rather yields a series of distinct transform peaks. This suggests universality, namely that the underlying random resonators that are responsible for the laser emission from the pi-conjugated polymer film are almost identical. We argue that the reason for such an universality is the large size of a typical resonator, which we determined from the PFT, as compared to the emission wavelength, lambda. This fact is, in turn, a consequence of the large light mean free path, l* approximately 10 lambda in the polymer film. This contrasts previous observations of random lasing in powders, where l* approx. lambda. We develop a simple theory that explains the presence of peaks in the average PFT and predicts their shape. The results of the theory agree quantitatively with the data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Evidence for Braggoriton Excitations in Opal Photonic Crystals Infiltrated with Highly Polarizable Dyes

We studied angle-dependent reflectivity spectra of opal photonic crystals infiltrated with cyanine dyes, which are highly polarizable media with very large Rabi frequency. We show that when resonance conditions between the exciton-polariton of the infiltrated dye and Bragg frequencies exist, then the Bragg stop band decomposes into two reflectivity bands with a semi-transparent spectral range in between that is due to light propagation inside the gap caused by the existence of braggoriton excitations. These novel excitations result from the interplay interaction between the Bragg gap with spatial modulation origin and the polariton gap due to the excitons, and may lead to optical communication traffic inside the gap of photonic crystals via channel waveguiding.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Coherent Umklapp Scattering of Light from Disordered Photonic Crystals

A theoretical study of the coherent light scattering from disordered photonic crystal is presented. In addition to the conventional enhancement of the reflected light intensity into the backscattering direction, the so called coherent backscattering (CBS), the periodic modulation of the dielectric function in photonic crystals gives rise to a qualitatively new effect: enhancement of the reflected light intensity in directions different from the backscattering direction. These additional coherent scattering processes, dubbed here {\em umklapp scattering} (CUS), result in peaks, which are most pronounced when the incident light beam enters the sample at an angle close to the the Bragg angle. Assuming that the dielectric function modulation is weak, we study the shape of the CUS peaks for different relative lengths of the modulation-induced Bragg attenuation compared to disorder-induced mean free path. We show that when the Bragg length increases, then the CBS peak assumes its conventional shape, whereas the CUS peak rapidly diminishes in amplitude. We also study the suppression of the CUS peak upon the departure of the incident beam from Bragg resonance: we found that the diminishing of the CUS intensity is accompanied by substantial broadening. In addition, the peak becomes asymmetric.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2000

Anomalous Coherent Backscattering of Light from Opal Photonic Crystals

We studied coherent backscattering (CBS) of light from opal photonic crystals in air at different incident inclination angles, wavelengths and along various [hkl] directions inside the opals. Similar to previously obtained CBS cones from various random media, we found that when Bragg condition with the incident light beam is not met then the CBS cones from opals show a triangular line shape in excellent agreement with light diffusion theory. At Bragg condition, however, we observed a dramatic broadening of the opal CBS cones that depends on the incident angle and [hkl] direction. This broadening is explained as due to the light intensity decay in course of propagation along the Bragg direction {\em before the first} and {\em after the last} scattering events. We modified the CBS theory to incorporate the attenuation that results from the photonic band structure of the medium. Using the modified theory we extract from our CBS data the light mean free path and Bragg attenuation length at different [hkl]. Our study shows that CBS measurements are a unique experimental technique to explore photonic crystals with disorder, when other spectroscopical methods become ambiguous due to disorder-induced broadening.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2000

Braggoriton--Excitation in Photonic Crystal Infiltrated with Polarizable Medium

Light propagation in a photonic crystal infiltrated with polarizable molecules is considered. We demonstrate that the interplay between the spatial dispersion caused by Bragg diffraction and polaritonic frequency dispersion gives rise to novel propagating excitations, or braggoritons, with intragap frequencies. We derive the braggoriton dispersion relation and show that it is governed by two parameters, namely, the strength of light-matter interaction and detuning between the Bragg frequency and that of the infiltrated molecules. We also study defect-induced states when the photonic band gap is divided into two subgaps by the braggoritonic branches and find that each defect creates two intragap localized states inside each subgap.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Mesoscopic Cooperative Emission From a Disordered System

We study theoretically the cooperative light emission from a system of $N\gg 1$ classical oscillators confined within a volume with spatial scale, $L$, much smaller than the radiation wavelength, $λ_0=2πc/ω_0$. We assume that the oscillators frequencies are randomly distributed around a central frequency, $ω_0$, with some characteristic width, $Ω\llω_0$. In the absence of disorder, that is $Ω=0$, the cooperative emission spectrum is composed of a narrow subradiant peak superimposed on a wide superradiant band. When $Ω\neq 0$, we demonstrate that if $N$ is large enough, the subradiant peak is not simply broadened by the disorder but rather splits into a system of random narrow peaks. We estimate the spectral width of these peaks as a function of $N, L, Ω$, and $λ_0$. We also estimate the amplitude of this mesoscopic structure in the emission spectrum.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Emission Spectrum of a Dipole in a Semi-infinite Periodic Dielectric Structure: Effect of the Boundary

The emission spectrum of a dipole embedded in a semi-infinite photonic crystal is calculated. For simplicity we study the case in which the dielectric function is sinusoidally modulated only along the direction perpendicular to the boundary surface plane. In addition to oscillations of the emission rate with the distance of the dipole from the interface we also observed that the shape of the emission spectrum srongly depends on the $\em initial$ $\em phase$ of the dielectric modulation. When the direction of light propagation inside the periodic structure is not normal to the boundary surface plane we observed aditional singularities in the emission spectrum, which arise due to different angle-dependence of the Bragg stop-band for $TE$ and $TM$ polarizations.

cond-mat↗