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Soljacic, Marin

Publications and source records attributed to Soljacic, Marin.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Excitation enhancement and extraction enhancement with photonic crystals

Disclosed herein is a system for stimulating emission from at least one an emitter, such as a quantum dot or organic molecule, on the surface of a photonic crystal comprising a patterned dielectric substrate. Embodiments of this system include a laser or other source that illuminates the emitter and the photonic crystal, which is characterized by an energy band structure exhibiting a Fano resonance, from a first angle so as to stimulate the emission from the emitter at a second angle. The coupling between the photonic crystal and the emitter may result in spectral and angular enhancement of the emission through excitation and extraction enhancement. These enhancement mechanisms also reduce the emitter's lasing threshold. For instance, these enhancement mechanisms enable lasing of a 100 nm thick layer of diluted organic molecules solution with reduced threshold intensity. This reduction in lasing threshold enables more efficient organic light emitting devices and more sensitive molecular sensing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers enabled by an accidental Dirac point

A photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) includes a gain medium electromagnetically coupled to a photonic crystal whose energy band structure exhibits a Dirac cone of linear dispersion at the center of the photonic crystal's Brillouin zone. This Dirac cone's vertex is called a Dirac point; because it is at the Brillouin zone center, it is called an accidental Dirac point. Tuning the photonic crystal's band structure (e.g., by changing the photonic crystal's dimensions or refractive index) to exhibit an accidental Dirac point increases the photonic crystal's mode spacing by orders of magnitudes and reduces or eliminates the photonic crystal's distributed in-plane feedback. Thus, the photonic crystal can act as a resonator that supports single-mode output from the PCSEL over a larger area than is possible with conventional PCSELs, which have quadratic band edge dispersion. Because output power generally scales with output area, this increase in output area results in higher possible output powers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Superlattice photonic crystal as broadband solar absorber for high temperature operation

Here, a high performance solar absorber using a 2D tantalum superlattice photonic crystal (PhC) is proposed and its design is optimized for high-temperature energy conversion. In contrast to the simple lattice PhC, which is limited by diffraction in the short wavelength range, the superlattice PhC achieves solar absorption over broadband spectral range due to the contribution from two superposed lattices with different cavity radii. The superlattice PhC geometry is tailored to achieve maximum thermal transfer efficiency for a low concentration system of 250 suns at 1500 K reaching 85.0% solar absorptivity. In the high concentration case of 1000 suns, the superlattice PhC absorber achieves a solar absorptivity of 96.2% and a thermal transfer efficiency of 82.9% at 1500 K, amounting to an improvement of 10% and 5%, respectively, versus the simple square lattice PhC absorber. In addition, the performance of the superlattice PhC absorber is studied in a solar thermophotovoltaic system which is optimized to minimize absorber re-emission by reducing the absorber-to-emitter area ratio and using a highly reflective silver aperture.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Topological photonics

The application of topology, the mathematics of conserved properties under continuous deformations, is creating a range of new opportunities throughout photonics. This field was inspired by the discovery of topological insulators, in which interfacial electrons transport without dissipation, even in the presence of impurities. Similarly, the use of carefully designed wavevector-space topologies allows the creation of interfaces that support new states of light with useful and interesting properties. In particular, this suggests unidirectional waveguides that allow light to flow around large imperfections without back-reflection. This Review explains here the underlying principles and highlights how topological effects can be realized in photonic crystals, coupled resonators, metamaterials and quasicrystals.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Continuous-wave organic dye lasers and methods

An organic dye laser produces a continuous-wave (cw) output without any moving parts (e.g., without using flowing dye streams or spinning discs of solid-state dye media to prevent photobleaching) and with a pump beam that is stationary with respect to the organic dye medium. The laser's resonant cavity, organic dye medium, and pump beam are configured to excite a lasing transition over a time scale longer than the associated decay lifetimes in the organic dye medium without photobleaching the organic dye medium. Because the organic dye medium does not photobleach when operating in this manner, it may be pumped continuously so as to emit a cw output beam. In some examples, operation in this manner lowers the lasing threshold (e.g., to only a few Watts per square centimeter), thereby facilitating electrical pumping for cw operation.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Efficient near-field wireless energy transfer using adiabatic system variations

Disclosed is a method for transferring energy wirelessly including transferring energy wirelessly from a first resonator structure to an intermediate resonator structure, wherein the coupling rate between the first resonator structure and the intermediate resonator structure is .kappa..sub.1B, transferring energy wirelessly from the intermediate resonator structure to a second resonator structure, wherein the coupling rate between the intermediate resonator structure and the second resonator structure is .kappa..sub.B2, and during the wireless energy transfers, adjusting at least one of the coupling rates .kappa..sub.1B and .kappa..sub.B2 to reduce energy accumulation in the intermediate resonator structure and improve wireless energy transfer from the first resonator structure to the second resonator structure through the intermediate resonator structure.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

High efficiency incandescent lighting

Incandescent lighting structure. The structure includes a thermal emitter that can, but does not have to, include a first photonic crystal on its surface to tailor thermal emission coupled to, in a high-view-factor geometry, a second photonic filter selected to reflect infrared radiation back to the emitter while passing visible light. This structure is highly efficient as compared to standard incandescent light bulbs.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Optical Broadband Angular Selectivity

Light selection based purely on the angle of propagation is a long-standing scientific challenge. In angularly selective systems, however, the transmission of light usually also depends on the light frequency. Here we tailored the overlap of the band gaps of multiple one-dimensional photonic crystals, each with a different periodicity, in such a way as to preserve the characteristic Brewster modes across a broadband spectrum. We provide theory as well as an experimental realization with an all–visible spectrum, p-polarized angularly selective material system. Our method enables transparency throughout the visible spectrum at one angle—the generalized Brewster angle—and reflection at every other viewing angle.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Modeling of threshold and dynamics behavior of organic nanostructured lasers

Organic dye molecules offer significant potential as gain media in the emerging field of optical amplification and lasing at subwavelength scales. In this article, we investigate the laser dynamics in systems comprising subwavelength-structured cavities that incorporate organic dyes. To this end, we have developed a comprehensive theoretical framework able to accurately describe the interaction of organic molecules with any arbitrary photonic structure to produce single-mode lasing. The model provides explicit analytic expressions of the threshold and slope efficiency that characterize this class of lasers, and also the duration over which lasing action can be sustained before the dye photobleaches. Both the physical properties of the dyes and the optical properties of the cavities are considered. We also systematically studied the feasibility of achieving lasing action under continuous-wave excitation in optically pumped monolithic organic dye lasers. This study suggests routes to realize an organic laser that can potentially lase with a threshold of only a few W cm -2 . In conclusion, our work puts forward a theoretical formalism that could enable the advancement of nanostructured organic-based light emitting and sensing devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗