Humeyra Caglayan

Improved Size-Tunable Synthesis of Monodisperse Gold Nanorods through the Use of Aromatic Additives

We report an improved synthesis of colloidal gold nanorods (NRs) by using aromatic additives that reduce the concentration of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant to ~0.05 M as opposed to 0.1 M in well-established protocols. The method optimizes the synthesis for each of the 11 additives studied, allowing a rich array of monodisperse gold NRs with longitudinal surface plasmon resonance tunable from 627 to 1246 nm to be generated. The gold NRs form large-area ordered assemblies upon slow evaporation of NR solution, exhibiting liquid crystalline ordering and several distinct local packing motifs that are dependent upon the NRs aspect ratio. Tailored synthesis of gold NRs with simultaneous improvements in monodispersity and dimensional tunability through rational introduction of additives will not only help to better understand the mechanism of seed-mediated growth of gold NRs but also advance the research on plasmonic metamaterials incorporating anisotropic metal nanostructures.

Chiral metamaterials with negative refractive index based on four “U” split ring resonators

A uniaxial chiral metamaterial is constructed by double-layered four “U” split ring resonators mutually twisted by 90°. It shows a giant optical activity and circular dichroism. The retrieval results reveal that a negative refractive index is realized for circularly polarized waves due to the large chirality. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical results.

Shape-Dependent Plasmonic Response and Directed Self-Assembly in a New Semiconductor Building Block, Indium-Doped Cadmium Oxide (ICO)

The influence of particle shape on plasmonic response and local electric field strength is well-documented in metallic nanoparticles. Morphologies such as rods, plates, and octahedra are readily synthesized and exhibit drastically different extinction spectra than spherical particles. Despite this fact, the influence of composition and shape on the optical properties of plasmonic semiconductor nanocrystals, in which free electrons result from heavy doping, has not been well-studied. Here, we report the first observation of plasmonic resonance in indium-doped cadmium oxide (ICO) nanocrystals, which exhibit the highest quality factors reported for semiconductor nanocrystals. Furthermore, we are able to independently control the shape and free electron concentration in ICO nanocrystals, allowing for the influence of shape on the optical response of a plasmonic semiconductor to be conclusively demonstrated. The highly uniform particles may be self-assembled into ordered single component and binary nanocrystal superlattices, and in thin films, exhibit negative permittivity in the near infrared (NIR) region, validating their use as a new class of tunable low-loss plasmonic building blocks for 3-D optical metamaterials.

Highly directive radiation from sources embedded inside photonic crystals

In this work, we have experimentally and theoretically studied the angular distribution of power emitted from a radiation source embedded inside a photonic crystal. Our results show that it is possible to obtain highly directive radiation sources operating at the band edge of the photonic crystal. Half power beam widths as small as 6° have been obtained. Our results also show that the angular distribution of power strongly depends on the frequency and on the size of the photonic crystal.

The focusing effect of graded index photonic crystals

We describe an approach to implement graded index (GRIN) structures using two-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs). The lattice spacing along the transverse direction to propagation is altered and we show, both theoretically and experimentally, that such a spatial perturbation is an effective way to obtain GRIN PC. The response of the structure to spatially wide incident beams is investigated and strong focusing behavior is observed. The large spot size conversion ratio can be attainable and is mainly limited by the finite size of the structure. The designed GRIN PC shows promise for use in optical systems that require compact and powerful focusing elements compared to the traditional bulky lenses.

Extraordinary grating-coupled microwave transmission through a subwavelength annular aperture

We studied coupling phenomena between surface plasmons and electromagnetic waves in the microwave spectrum using circular apertures surrounded by array of grooves.We first present experimental and theoretical results of enhanced microwave transmission though a subwavelength circular aperture with concentric periodic grooves around the surface plasmon resonance frequency. This is followed by transmission studies through circular annular apertures and circular annular apertures surrounded by concentric periodic grooves. We demonstrated that 145 fold enhancement factor could be obtained with a subwavelength circular annular aperture surrounded by concentric periodic grooves. Our results show that, high transmission from a circular annular aperture with grooves is assisted by the guided mode of the coaxial waveguide and coupling to the surface plasmons.

Beaming of light and enhanced transmission via surface modes of photonic crystals

We report beaming and enhanced transmission of electromagnetic waves by use of surface corrugated photonic crystals. The modes of a finite-size photonic crystal composed of dielectric rods in free space have been analyzed by the plane-wave expansion method. We show the existence of surface propagating modes when the surface of the finite-size photonic crystal is corrugated. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the transmission through photonic crystal waveguides can be substantially increased by the existence of surface propagating modes at the input surface. In addition, the power emitted from the photonic crystal waveguide is confined to a narrow angular region when an appropriate surface corrugation is added to the output surface of the photonic crystal.

Beaming of electromagnetic waves emitted through a subwavelength annular aperture

We study the diffraction of electromagnetic waves from subwavelength metallic circular apertures in the microwave spectrum. The theoretical and experimental demonstration of the near- and far-field electromagnetic distributions for subwavelength circular annular apertures and circular annular apertures surrounded by concentric periodic grooves are reported here. The metallic samples had a subwavelength hole with a diameter of 8 mm and had concentric grooves with a periodicity of 16 mm. We present the angular transmission distributions from circular annular apertures, and circular annular apertures surrounded by concentric periodic grooves. At the surface-mode resonance frequency the transmitted electromagnetic waves from the subwavelength circular annular aperture surrounded by concentric periodic grooves have a strong angular confinement with an angular divergence of ±3°. This represents a fourfold reduction when compared with the angular divergence of the beam transmitted from the subwavelength circular aperture.

High efficiency of graded index photonic crystal as an input coupler

A graded index photonic crystal (GRIN PC) configuration was placed at the input side of a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) in order to efficiently couple the light waves into the waveguide. We compared the transmission efficiencies of light in the absence and presence of the GRIN PC structure. We report a significant improvement in coupling when the GRIN PC is incorporated with the PCW. The intensity profiles were obtained by carrying out the experiments at microwave frequencies. Finite difference time domain based simulations were found to be in good agreement with our experimental results.

Compact size highly directive antennas based on the SRR metamaterial medium

In this work, we studied the far-field properties of the microwave radiation from sources embedded inside the split-ring resonator (SRR) metamaterial medium. Our results showed that the emitted power near the resonance frequency of the SRR structure was confined to a narrow angular region in the far field. The measured radiation patterns showed half-power beamwidths around 14 ◦ .The highly directive radiation is obtained with a smaller radiation surface area when compared to the previous results obtained by using photonic crystals. The reduction in the surface area is ten-fold in the case of the SRR metamaterial medium when compared to the photonic crystals. Our results provide means to create compact size highly directive antennas.