Novel Optical Materials

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Category 4.1 Directions for Basic Research
Physical Sciences Condensed Matter Physics
Novel Optical Materials
S. Tripura Sundari Materials Science
Division Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic
Research Kalpakkam 603 102
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Optical materials

• Photonic bandgap materials (PBG)
• Metamaterials (MM)

Why Novel?
PC Photonic crystal- Artificially
micro-structured objects in 1,2 or three
dimension with a periodic variation in dielectric
constant PBG PC bandgap (photon)? Metamaterial
s Possess negative refractive index?
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Physics of bandgap formation
A synergetic interplay between microscopic (Mie)
and macroscopic (Bragg) resonances
.Bragg scattering 2d ml w /c m p / d,
m1,2, Mie resonance 2r/li (m1)/2,
m0,1,2, Maximum reflection (m0) Gap
appears when
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Physics of metamaterials

• Materials with negative permittivity e
• Materials with negative permeability µ

Implications Light bends the wrong way?
Material
I
S
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Implications of bandgap for photons
Photonic bandgap materials analogue of
semiconductor

• Control propagation of light
• Control emission of light sources

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Conceivable applications of PBG

• Efficient LED, Lasers
• Optical circuits/chips
• Controlled photochemistry
• Transistors of photons
• Frequency-selective, loss-less reflection
• Filters, switches, optical amplifiers

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Conceivable application of metamaterials
Fabrication of perfect lens Sharp
focussing Subwavelength imaging..
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Photonic bandgap materials Fabrication
Layer by layer fabrications Etching,
holography Colloids, opals, inverse
opals Robotics Chemical approaches.
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Metamaterials Fabrication
Conventionally composite material SRR with Cu
wires Research on new methods coming up
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Theoretical approaches

• Almost well established
• Plane wave expansion method (PWE)
• Transfer matrix method (TMM)
• Finite-difference-time-domain-method (FDTD)

PBG
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VISION

• Design photonic bandgap materials and
  metamaterials
• Search for photonic bandgap materials and
  metamaterials
• Study effect of metals, defects, ionic and
  magnetic doping
• Fabricate through simple routes
• Study the physics of metamaterials and photonic
  bandgap materials

Can photons compete with electrons on equal
footing?
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Typical example for a metamaterial
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