This LDRD project explored the fundamental physics of a new class of photonic materials, photonic bandgap structures (PBG), and examine its unique properties for the design and implementation of photonic devices on a nano-meter length scale for the control and confinement of light. The low loss, highly reflective and quantum interference nature of a PBG material makes it one of the most promising candidates for realizing an extremely high-Q resonant cavity,>10,000, for optoelectronic applications and for the exploration of novel photonic physics, such as photonic localization, tunneling and modification of spontaneous emission rate. Moreover, the photonic bandgap concept affords us with a new opportunity to design and tailor photonic properties in very much the same way we manipulate, or bandgap engineer, electronic properties through modern epitaxy.

Discusses the basic physical principles underlying the science and technology of nanophotonics, its materials and structures This volume presents nanophotonic structures and Materials. Nanophotonics is photonic science and technology that utilizes light/matter interactions on the nanoscale where researchers are discovering new phenomena and developing techniques that go well beyond what is possible with conventional photonics and electronics.The topics discussed in this volume are: Cavity Photonics; Cold Atoms and Bose-Einstein Condensates; Displays; E-paper; Graphene; Integrated Photonics; Liquid Crystals; Metamaterials; Micro-and Nanostructure Fabrication; Nanomaterials; Nanotubes; Plasmonics; Quantum Dots; Spintronics; Thin Film Optics Comprehensive and accessible coverage of the whole of modern photonics Emphasizes processes and applications that specifically exploit photon attributes of light Deals with the rapidly advancing area of modern optics Chapters are written by top scientists in their field Written for the graduate level student in physical sciences; Industrial and academic researchers in photonics, graduate students in the area; College lecturers, educators, policymakers, consultants, Scientific and technical libraries, government laboratories, NIH.

Silicon photonics witnessed spectacular progress in the past decade. Optical interconnects, low cost telecommunications and optical sensors are three main application areas. Photonic crystal is composed of periodic scatterers. When the scatterers are of the proper size and the periodicity is on the order of wavelength, all the reflections and refractions will cancel, forming photonic band-gap forbidding light to penetrate into it. If we remove one line of the scatterers, the light will be confined in this "wire" tightly, forming a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW). To date, most of the PCW research has been focused on the even TE-like mode. However, a PCW often has an odd TE-like mode inside the photonic band gap exhibiting the slow-light effect as well. We demonstrated a novel scheme to control the excitation symmetry for a slow-light odd-mode in a PCW, and investigated the spectral signature. An odd-mode Mach-Zehnder coupler was introduced to excite a high-purity odd-mode with 20 dB signal-to-background contrast. Assisted by a mixed-mode Mach-Zehnder coupler, slow-light mode-beating can be observed, and determine the group index of this odd-mode. With slow-light enhancement, this odd-mode can help enable miniaturized devices based on transforming mode symmetry. The evolution of the transmission spectrum of a PCW under electro-optic tuning was studied in the band of an odd TE-like mode. The spectral signature of the interband scattering from the TM-like mode to the odd TE-like mode was characterized at various bias levels. The shift of the odd-mode band was determined. Simulations were performed to explain the spectral shift based on electro-optic and thermo-optic effects in the active photonic crystal structures. Potential impact of interband scattering on indirect interband-transition-based optical isolators is discussed and potential remedies are offered. Nanopatterning is one of the key steps in nano-fabrication. We applied the negative index material (NIM) to enhance the evanescent wave in the near-field region and excite surface plasmons. Superlens devices working at 193nm DUV wavelength were fabricated, imaged on the photoresist, and characterized by AFM. A series of Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations were performed to analyze the imaging mechanism of the superlens.