0000000000384679
AUTHOR
Mahin Naserpour
Scattering of electromagnetic waves from a graphene-coated thin cylinder of left-handed metamaterial
Abstract In this paper, we explored the scattering behavior of thin cylinders made of a left-handed material (LHM) and coated by a monoatomic graphene layer. A spectral tunability of the resonance peaks is evidenced by altering the chemical potential of the graphene coating, a fact that occurs at any state of polarization of the incident plane wave in opposition to the case of scatterers of dielectric core. On the contrary, no invisibility condition can be satisfied for dielectric environments. A singular performance is also found for cylinders with permittivity and permeability near zero. Practical implementations of our results can be carried out in sensing and wave manipulation driven by…
Optimization of multilayered nanotubes for maximal scattering cancellation
An optimization for multilayered nanotubes that minimizes the scattering efficiency for a given polarization is derived. The cylindrical nanocavities have a radially periodic distribution, and the marginal layers that play a crucial role particularly in the presence of nonlocalities are disposed to reduce the scattering efficiency up to two orders of magnitude in comparison with previous proposals. The predominant causes leading to such invisibility effect are critically discussed. A transfer-matrix formalism is additionally developed for the fast estimation of the scattering efficiency of the nanostructures.
Nonlocal dispersion anomalies of Dyakonov-like surface waves at hyperbolic media interfaces
Dyakonov-like surface waves (DSWs) propagating obliquely on an anisotropic nanostructure have been theoretically proved in a few cases including 2D photonic crystals and metal-insulator (MI) layered metamaterials. Up to now, the long-wavelength approximation has been employed in order to obtain effective parameters to be introduced in the Dyakonov equation, which is largely restricted to material inhomogeneities of a few nanometers when including metallic elements. Here, we explore DSWs propagating obliquely at the interface between an insulator and a hyperbolic metamaterial, the latter consisting of a 1D MI bandgap grating using realistic slab sizes. We found unexpected favorable condition…
Generation of accelerating beams using nano-scale metallic circular gratings
Spatially accelerating beams that are solutions to the Maxwell equations may propagate along incomplete circular trajectories, after which diffraction broadening takes over and the beams spread out. In this paper we report on numerical simulations that show the conversion of a high-numerical-aperture focused beam into a nonparaxial shape-preserving accelerating beam having a beam-width near the diffraction limit. Beam shaping is induced by a diffractive optical element that consists of a non-planar sub-wavelength grating enabling a Bessel signature.
Metacoatings for wavelength scale, high NA plano-concave focusing lenses
We design plano-concave silicon lenses with coupled gradient-index plasmonic metacoatings for ultrawide apertured focusing utilizing a reduced region of $\sim 20 \lambda^2$. The anomalous refraction induced in the planar input side of the lens and in the boundary of the wavelength-scale focal region boosts the curvature of the emerging wavefront, thus significantly enhancing the resolution of the tightly-focused optical wave. The formation of a light tongue with dimensions approaching those of the concave opening is here evidenced. This scheme is expected to have potential applications in optical trapping and detection.
A broadband multifocal metalens in the terahertz frequency range
Abstract Metasurfaces, the 2D form of metamaterials with their ability in phase, amplitude and polarization manipulation are widely used in designing optical devices. Efforts to find proper photonic components in the terahertz (THz) range of frequency lead us to adopt metasurfaces as their constituent elements. Here, we conceived a broadband THz lens with an adjustable number and arrangement of focal points. To have a full control over the lens functionality, we used a metasurface with the capability of simultaneously modulating the amplitude and phase of the incident wave. C-shaped ring resonators (CSRRs) with different geometry and orientation capable of simultaneously manipulating phase …
Plano-concave microlenses with epsilon-near-zero surface-relief coatings for efficient shaping of nonparaxial optical beams
Abstract Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, including artificial metamaterials, have been advanced to mold laser beams and antenna-mediated radiated waves. Here we propose an efficient method to control Ohmic losses inherent to natural ENZ materials by the assembly of subwavelength structures in a nonperiodic matrix constituting an ENZ metacoating. Implemented over plano-concave transparent substrates whose radius can be of only a few wavelengths, ENZ surface-relief elements demonstrate to adequately shape a plane wave into highly localized fields. Furthermore, our proposal provides an energy efficiency even higher than an ideally-lossless all-ENZ plano-concave lens. Our procedure is satisf…
Dyakonov surface waves in lossy metamaterials
We analyze the existence of localized waves in the vicinities of the interface between two dielectrics, provided one of them is uniaxial and lossy. We found two families of surface waves, one of them approaching the well-known Dyakonov surface waves (DSWs). In addition, a new family of wave fields exists which are tightly bound to the interface. Although its appearance is clearly associated with the dissipative character of the anisotropic material, the characteristic propagation length of such surface waves might surpass the working wavelength by nearly two orders of magnitude. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Project TEC2013-50416-E…
Amplitude modulation technique for designing metalenses with apodized and enhanced resolution focal spots
Abstract In this paper we show that engineering both phase and amplitude of the scattered light can be employed in designing metalenses with either higher resolution or apodized focal spots. C-shaped split-ring micro-resonators (CSRRs) with different geometrical parameters are selected to have a full control of amplitude and phase. While phase engineering is necessary for light focusing, amplitude modulation of the scattered wave can be applied to characterize the focal point properties such as resolution gain and sidelobe level. We show that both axial and transverse resolution improvement or apodization is possible in the far-field region by applying proper amplitude function. Amplitude m…
Some considerations on the transmissivity of trirefringent metamaterials
Nonlocal effects in metal–dielectric (MD) periodic nanostructures may typically be observed when the plasmonic particles and gaps are on the scale of a few tens of nanometers, enabling under certain conditions (succinctly for epsilon near zero) a collimated beam to split into three refracted signals. We developed a method for precisely evaluating the categorized transmissivity in an air/trirefringent metamaterial interface, which uses a fast one-dimensional Fourier transform and finite element solvers of Maxwell’s equations. In periodic arrays of MD nanofilms, it is proved a tunable transmissivity switch of the multirefracted beams under varying angle of incidence and wavelength, while keep…
Metalenses with high-NA, enhanced resolution and apodization
Dielectric microlenses employed in imaging and focusing for optoelectronics are currently prospects to be substituted by metalenses showing an extraordinary optical performance within notably reduced volumes. Here we present some proposals to achieve an enhanced resolution in metallodielectric metasurface-based lenses established on either efficient arrangements with high numerical aperture or spatial filtering enabling to surpass the limit of resolution derived by the Rayleigh criterion.
Metacoatings for wavelength-scale, high-numerical-aperture plano–concave focusing lenses
We design plano–concave silicon lenses with coupled gradient-index plasmonic metacoatings for ultrawide apertured focusing utilizing a reduced region of ∼20λ2. The anomalous refraction induced in the planar input side of the lens and in the boundary of the wavelength-scale focal region boosts the curvature of the emerging wavefront, thus significantly enhancing the resolution of the tightly focused optical wave. The formation of a light tongue with dimensions approaching those of the concave opening is here evidenced. This scheme is expected to have potential applications in optical trapping and detection.
Dyakonov-like surface waves in the THz regime
Abstract Here we examine Dyakonov-like surface waves (DSWs) in the THz regime traveling along the plane interface between a non-conducting isotropic medium and a low-loss graphene-based uniaxial metamaterial with the optic axis (OA) oriented along with the interface. New insights concerning the propagation characteristics of DSWs are given by analyzing the dispersion relation in such configuration, that is evaluated using the effective medium theory. The range of angles with respect to the OA which is determined for the in-plane wave vector can be conveniently tuned with extremely flexibility in opposition with DSWs excited in natural anisotropic media. The properties discussed here are of …
Accelerating wide-angle converging waves in the near field
We show that a wide-angle converging wave may be transformed into a shape-preserving accelerating beam having a beam-width near the diffraction limit. For that purpose, we followed a strategy that is particularly conceived for the acceleration of nonparaxial laser beams, in contrast to the well-known method by Siviloglou et al (2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 213901). The concept of optical near-field shaping is applied to the design of non-flat ultra-narrow diffractive optical elements. The engineered curvilinear caustic can be set up by the beam emerging from a dynamic assembly of elementary gratings, the latter enabling to modify the effective refractive index of the metamaterial as it is arran…
Tunable scattering cancellation of light using anisotropic cylindrical cavities
Engineered core-shell cylinders are good candidates for applications in invisibility and cloaking.In particular, hyperbolic nanotubes demonstrate tunable ultra-low scattering cross section in the visible spectral range. In this work we investigate the limits of validity of the condition for invisibility, which was shown to rely on reaching an epsilon near zero in one of the components of the effective permittivity tensor of the anisotropic metamaterial cavity. For incident light polarized perpendicularly to the scatterer axis, critical deviations are found in low-birefringent arrangements and also with high-index cores. We demonstrate that the ability of anisotropic metallodielectric nanoca…
Tunable invisibility cloaking by using isolated graphene-coated nanowires and dimers
AbstractWe investigate, both theoretically and numerically, a graphene-coated nano-cylinder illuminated by a plane electromagnetic wave in the far-infrared range of frequencies. We have derived an analytical formula that enables fast evaluation of the spectral window with a substantial reduction in scattering efficiency for a sufficiently thin cylinder. This polarization-dependent effect leads to tunable resonant invisibility that can be achieved via modification of graphene chemical potential monitored by the gate voltage. A multi-frequency cloaking mechanism based on dimer coated nanowires is also discussed in detail.
Ultrathin high-index metasurfaces for shaping focused beams
The volume size of a converging wave, which plays a relevant role in image resolution, is governed by the wavelength of the radiation and the numerical aperture (NA) of the wavefront. We designed an ultrathin (λ/8 width) curved metasurface that is able to transform a focused field into a high-NA optical architecture, thus boosting the transverse and (mainly) on-axis resolution. The elements of the metasurface are metal-insulator subwavelength gratings exhibiting extreme anisotropy with ultrahigh index of refraction for TM polarization. Our results can be applied to nanolithography and optical microscopy. Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MEC) (TEC2013-50416-EXP).
Highly localized accelerating beams using nano-scale metallic gratings
Spatially accelerating beams are non-diffracting beams whose intensity is localized along curvilinear trajectories, also incomplete circular trajectories, before diffraction broadening governs their propagation. In this paper we report on numerical simulations showing the conversion of a high-numerical-aperture focused beam into a nonparaxial shape-preserving accelerating beam having a beam-width near the diffraction limit. Beam shaping is induced near the focal region by a diffractive optical element that consists of a non-planar subwavelength grating enabling a Bessel signature. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project TEC2011-29120…
Nonparaxial shape-preserving Airy beams with Bessel signature
Spatially accelerating beams that are solutions to Maxwell equations may propagate along incomplete circular trajectories. Taking these truncated Bessel fields to the paraxial limit, some authors have sustained that it has recovered the known Airy beams (AiBs). Based on the angular spectrum representation of optical fields, we demonstrated that the paraxial approximation rigorously leads to off-axis focused beams instead of finite-energy AiBs. The latter will arise under the umbrella of a nonparaxial approach following elliptical trajectories in place of parabolas. The analytical expression of such a shape-preserving wave field under Gaussian apodization is disclosed by using third-order no…
Conditions for achieving invisibility of hyperbolic multilayered nanotubes
Invisibility of nanotubes has recently been demonstrated in highly anisotropic metamaterials in the transition regime from hyperbolic to elliptic dispersion [Sci. Rep. 5 (2015) 16027]. In such study, the characterization of a realistic multilayered metamaterial was carried out by means of an effective medium approach providing average components of the permittivity tensor and wave fields. Here, the edge effects of the metal-dielectric stratified nanotube for different combinations were thoroughly analyzed. We show how the boundary layers, which in principle remain fully irrelevant in the estimation of the effective permittivity of the nanotube, however play a critical role in the scattering…
Accurate expansion of cylindrical paraxial waves for its straightforward implementation in electromagnetic scattering
Abstract The evaluation of vector wave fields can be accurately performed by means of diffraction integrals, differential equations and also series expansions. In this paper, a Bessel series expansion which basis relies on the exact solution of the Helmholtz equation in cylindrical coordinates is theoretically developed for the straightforward yet accurate description of low-numerical-aperture focal waves. The validity of this approach is confirmed by explicit application to Gaussian beams and apertured focused fields in the paraxial regime. Finally we discuss how our procedure can be favorably implemented in scattering problems.