Narrow Results

The amount of light and its time distribution are key factors determining the performance of scintillators when used as radiation detectors. However most inorganic scintillators are made of heavy materials and suffer from a high index of refraction which limits light extraction efficiency. This increases the path length of the photons in the material with the consequence of higher absorption and tails in the time distribution of the extracted light. Photonic crystals are a relatively new way of conquering this light extraction problem. Basically they are a way to produce a smooth and controllable index matching between the scintillator and the output medium through the nanostructuration of a thin layer of optically transparent high index material deposited at the coupling face of the scintillator. Our review paper discusses the theory behind this approach as well as the simulation details. Furthermore the different lithography steps of the production of an actual photonic crystal sample will be explained. Measurement results of LSO scintillator pixels covered with a nanolithography machined photonic crystal surface are presented together with practical tips for the further development and improvement of this technique.

Gold nanoparticle assemblies show a strong plasmonic response due to the combined effects of the individual nanoparticles’ plasmon modes. Increasing the number of nanoparticles in structured assemblies leads to significant shifts in the optical and physical properties. We use finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to analyze the electromagnetic response of structurally ordered gold nanorods in monomer and dimer configurations. The plasmonic coupling between nanorods in monomers or dimers configurations provides a unique technique for tuning the spectrum intensity, spatial distribution and polarization of local electric fields within and surrounding nanostructures. This study shows an exponential coupling behavior when two gold nanorods are assembled in end-to-end and side-by-side dimer configurations with a small separation distance. The maximum electric field in the gaps between adjacent nanorods in end-to-end dimer configuration describes a more significant enhancement factor than the individual gold nanorod. Our FDTD simulation on dimer in end-to-end assembly for small separation distance up to $\sim 40$nm can well explain the observed experimental growth dynamics of gold nanorods.

When space (time) translation symmetry is spontaneously broken, the space crystal (time crystal) forms; when permittivity and permeability periodically vary with space (time), the photonic space crystal (photonic time crystal) forms. We rewrote Maxwell’s equations in photonic time crystal, and discretized Maxwell’s equations with finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, deduced the discretized electric and magnetic field, and simulated electromagnetic wave propagation in two-dimensional (2D) photonic space-time crystal and photonic space crystal (or photonic crystal), and discussed the effect of parameters on the band gap.

Research on the improvement of the photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cells is always the focus. In this paper, an efficient anti-reflection micro/nanostructure is proposed to improve the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Graded effective refractive index theory is used to achieve the anti-reflection effect while the simulation model is established by FDTD. A specific periodic nanostructure is obtained, which can achieve a good anti-reflection effect. According to the simulation model, the reflectivity of the solar cell is reduced by 0.85% and the transmittance is increased by 0.85% in the band range of 200 nm to 1000 nm. Specifically, high anti-reflection phenomena are obtained in the band range of ultraviolet and blue light, in which the reflectivity is reduced by 1.56% and the transmittance is increased by 1.55%. Based on the simulation results, the array nanostructure is produced by etching the self-assembled polystyrene (PS) microspheres. Finally, the required structure is formed on the silicon wafer by nanoimprinting and etching technology. The reflectivity of 2.8% is obtained on silicon, which can potentially increase the opto-electrical performance of the solar cell.

In this paper, three structures (cylinder, square column, and hexagonal prism) of InGaAsP nanowire arrays are designed based on the excellent light trapping effect of nanostructures. The effects of nanowire aperture, array period, and nanowire height on the light absorption properties are simulated and analyzed using the finite-domain time-difference (FDTD) method. The photoelectron emission capacity of the nanowire arrays was also calculated using MATLAB. The results show that the cylindrical nanowire array has phenomenon of resonance enhancement (absorption peak) in the near-infrared band of 820–1000nm, and the shift of absorption peaks can be achieved by adjusting the geometric parameters. Meanwhile, the quantum efficiency is taken to 9.98%. These simulation results provide some reference for the photocathode design of InGaAsP in the near-infrared band.

GaInAsSb has an important application value in the field of infrared photoelectricity. In this paper, the optical properties of Ga${}_{0.84}$In${}_{0.16}$As${}_{0.14}$Sb${}_{0.86}$ nanopillar arrays with different shapes are studied by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The simulation results show that the peaks of all structures occur at 950nm to 1100 nm bands and peak up to 97%. Among them, the period and height of the nanopillars and the inclination angle of the incident light will significantly affect the size of the absorption peak of the nanopillars, but not the peak position. However, with the increase of the diameter, the absorption peak of the nanoparticles showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing, and the peak position of the absorption peak showed a significant redshift. In addition, for the triangular prism structure, its absorption rate in the array structure with high duty cycle is higher than 90%, which provides an important reference for the preparation of high-density integrated infrared optical detector.

In this paper, we present an analysis and modeling of the interaction of electromagnetic fields with metallic nanostructures using computational tools that allow us to study the phenomena that are produced as an electromagnetic field interacts with the nanostructure. The analysis of dielectric systems including metals can be very complicated because of the metal parameters. For this reason, we propose to integrate the dielectric function of the Lorentz-Drude model with the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method, which will permit to study the surface and internal effects within the metal nanostructure system added to the dielectric system, and the interaction of electromagnetic fields with atoms, ions or molecules excited up to their resonant frequency, which causes transitions among atomic energy levels. We solved the system and showed the results of the simulation for the following case studies, silver nanosphere of 100nm in diameter, gold nanorod of 12nm in thickness and 30nm in length and gold nanogroove of 70nm.

The underwater photoelectric detection equipment mainly uses 532 nm laser as the light source, but the corresponding photocathodes like Na₂KSbCs, GaAs and GaAsP have a wide spectral response region and are easily affected by other signals. Thereby, GaAlAs are materials worth developing because of their adjustable band gap, which usually is used as a window layer of GaAs-based photocathode. In this paper, the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is used to carry out nanostructure design simulations. The results show that GaAlAs with Al component of 0.63 can obtain the cutoff wavelength near 532 nm, which is an excellent photocathode material to meet the requirement of narrow-band spectral response of 532 nm laser. Furthermore, the light absorptance can be improved effectively by the quadrangular prism or cylinder nanostructured array prepared on the Ga${}_{0.37}$Al${}_{0.63}$As emission layer surface, and the maximum light absorptance can reach 96.2% at 532 nm for the cylinder nanostructure array with a height of 900 nm and a base width of 100 nm. Nevertheless, the reflection-mode Ga${}_{0.37}$Al${}_{0.63}$As photocathode with the quadrangular prism nanostructured array can be slightly influenced with incident angle of light.

The Lorentz–Drude model incorporated Maxwell equations are simulated by using the three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and the method is parallelized on multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) for plasmonics applications. The compute unified device architecture (CUDA) is used for GPU parallelization. The Lorentz–Drude (LD) model is used to simulate the dispersive nature of materials in plasmonics domain and the auxiliary differential equation (ADE) approach is used to make it consistent with time domain Maxwell equations. Different aspects of multiple GPUs for the FDTD method are presented such as comparison of different numbers of GPUs, transfer time in between them, synchronous, and asynchronous passing. It is shown that by using multiple GPUs in parallel fashion, significant reduction in the simulation time can be achieved as compared to the single GPU.

In this study, we report photonic band structures and optical transmissions of some SiC polytypes, such as 3C, 2H, 4H, and 6H, and their multilayers, which have the form of a hexagonal photonic crystal at two-dimensional (2D) scale. Through the finite-difference time-domain computational simulations, we found that spatial electric-field variations of electromagnetic waves depend on the radius of dielectric rods of the multilayer crystal structure, and the central structural geometry of 4H- and 6H-SiC hexagonal polytypes was found to cause a remarkable increase of the wave vector $k$ in $x$ and $y$ directions. We also found a correlation between the local central structures of the optical modes in the 2D hexagonal crystal of 4H- and 6H-SiC polytypes. The wave-guiding in 4H- and 6H-SiC polytypes in the central core of the model geometry enabled the integration of defects to achieve a wide spectrum of technological functionalities, such as devices with striking features for miniaturized sensors and quantum information processing.

An implicit high-order compact unconditionally stable finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is proposed here for numerical solution of point sources over an impedance plane. In this method, the linearized Euler equations are split into three directional sets and twelve simple wave components, or six when equivalent sources are adopted with no mean flow. Each component is solved using a fourth-order Padé approximant in space and second-order trapezoidal integration in time. The concept of reflection coefficient is used and algebraically modeled to develop time-domain impedance-equivalent boundary conditions. Comparisons with established methods for reflections of harmonic or impulsive sources demonstrate the applicability of this method for general impedance value, source type, or their arbitrary distributions. Examples of using typical wool felt and grass ground impedances are given to illustrate its practicality and effectiveness. This method provides a means through which time-domain theories and procedures for in-situ characterization of impedance surfaces can be developed.

Modeling of acoustic pulse propagation in nonideal fluids requires the inclusion of attenuation and its causal companion, dispersion. For the case of propagation in a linear, unbounded medium Szabo developed a convolutional propagation operator which, when introduced into the linear wave equation, accounts for attenuation and causal dispersion for any medium whose attenuation possesses a generalized Fourier transform. Utilizing a one dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) model Norton and Novarini showed that for an unbounded isotropic medium, the inclusion of this unique form of the convolutional propagation operator into the wave equation correctly carries the information of attenuation and dispersion into the time domain. This paper addresses the question whether or not the operator can be used as a basic building block for pulse propagation in a spatially dependent dispersive environment. The operator is therefore used to model 2-D pulse propagation in the presence of an interface separating two dispersive media. This represents the simplest description of a spatially dependent dispersive media. It was found that the transmitted and backscattered fields are in excellent agreement with theoretical expectations demonstrating the effectiveness of the local operator to model the field in spatially dependent dispersive media. [Work supported by ONR/NRL.]

We present a theoretical mechanism for electric field enhancement with SERS of InAs particles of subwavelength apertures under THz excitation. The distribution of electric field confirms that there is a strong enhancement in the InAs particles at THz frequencies. The InAs with a Drude-like behavior in THz range, which is similar to metals at optical frequencies, leads to different SERS when the parameters of these two particles change. The SERS enhancement factor can reach $10^{11}$ under the certain conditions.

In this paper, we systemically and numerically investigate the effects of three types of Nanoparticles on the efficiency of solar cells. Finite Difference Time Domain method has been implemented to compute the absorption spectra in such proposed solar cell structure. High efficiency has been achieved by optimizing the nanoparticles layer by tuning the fraction of nanoparticles on the host layer.

In this paper, we propose and simulate the surface plasmon polariton nanofocusing process by using Finite-difference Time-domain (FDTD) method. The maximum enhancement factor at the taper end area is optimized with different wavelength of the excitation laser. With the advantage of SNOM, the SPP nanofocusing is experimentally observed by illuminating the tapered CdS nanoribbon deposited on the Ag film. The SPP dispersion is used to predict the optimal taper angles of the structure. As the emission of the focused SPP at the taper end, the proposed plasmonic structure can be severed as a light nanosource emitter in the future optical integrated circuits.

Two-photon absorption and optical limiting of two fluorenyl-based derivatives, 9,9-dimethyl-2,7-bis((E)-4-nitrostyryl)-9H-fluorene and 9,9-dimethyl-2,7-bis((E)-4-((E)-4-nitrostyryl)styryl)-9H-fluorene, in gas phase and solvent with nanosecond laser pulse have been theoretically investigated by solving the coupled rate equations and the field intensity equation employing an iterative predictor–corrector finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The results show that both optical limiting properties and two-photon absorption cross-section strongly depend on the length of these molecules and the solvent. Moreover, the dynamical two-photon absorption behavior is affected by the thickness of samples and the pulse duration. These discoveries demonstrate that these fluorenyl-based derivatives possess highly promising characteristics and have potential applications for optical limiting devices.

The radio technique of cosmogenic neutrino detection, which relies on the Cherenkov signals coherently emitted from the particle showers in dense medium, has now become a mature field. We present an alternative approach to calculate such Cherenkov pulse by a numerical code based on the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method that does not rely on the far-field approximation. We show that for a shower elongated by the LPM (Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal) effect and thus with a multi-peak structure, the generated Cherenkov signal will always be a bipolar and asymmetric waveform in the near-field regime regardless of the specific variations of the multi-peak structure, which makes it a generic and distinctive feature. This should provide an important characteristic signature for the identification of ultra-high energy cosmogenic neutrinos.

Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has been successfully developed to model electromagnetic systems in recent years. Since acoustics and electromagnetism share certain undulatory properties, a natural adaptation of this technique has been developed too. Several acoustics problems, such as room acoustics, require the use of fibrous tangles to attenuate the propagation speed of sound waves. Notwithstanding, although free air acoustic propagation is known, FDTD technique is not developed yet to model fibrous materials. To characterize this behavior, only a few and measurable set of parameters must be considered. In this paper, a new approach for modeling fibrous materials analysis using FDTD is presented and validated. A set of simulations covering various packing densities of a real fibrous material is performed. Loudspeaker cabinets, virtual acoustics and room acoustics are situations in which this method can be applied.

We proposed a novel two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PC) flat lens based on the surface-edge engineering of a PC slab, operating as an n = -1 superlens at λ = 1.55 μm. The cross-section at the truncated edge of the flat lens is similar to an "anti-reflection grating", which is employed to reduce the reflectivity of propagative waves. The PC flat lens with a low reflectance of 1% was realized by the proposed truncated surface-edge for an InP/InGaAsP/InP 2D PC slab. The simulation results obtained with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method show that a PC flat super lens with a far-field resolution of 0.41 λ and a high transmittance of 81.9% can be achieved by the engineering of the truncated surface-edge at hetero-interface.

Ultra-wide band (UWB) microwave imaging is a promising method for the breast cancer detection based on the large contrast of electric parameters between the malignant tumor and its surrounded normal organisms. In this paper, a two-dimensional model of the breast organisms is numerically carried by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The dispersion characteristics of the breast media are taken into account by single pole Debye model to approach the actual properties of the breast organism. In this method, a tumor is assumed in the model with two cases. The standard Capon beamforming (SCB) and doubly constrained robust Capon beamforming (DCRCB) algorithm performed to reconstruct the image is described in detail. The tumor can be detected and localized using the proposed algorithm and the result demonstrates a good stability of DCRCB algorithm.