Iridium-Based Selective Emitters for Thermophotovoltaic Applications.

The long-term operation of refractory-metal-based metamaterials is crucial for applications such as thermophotovoltaics. The metamaterials based on refractory metals like W, Mo, Ta, Nb, and Re fail primarily by oxidation. Here, the use of the noble metal Ir is proposed, which is stable to oxidation and has optical properties comparable to gold.

Influence of Alumina Addition on the Optical Properties and the Thermal Stability of Titania Thin Films and Inverse Opals Produced by Atomic Layer Deposition.

TiO thin films deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at low temperatures (<100 °C) are, in general, amorphous and exhibit a smaller refractive index in comparison to their crystalline counterparts. Nonetheless, low-temperature ALD is needed when the substrates or templates are based on polymeric materials, as the deposition has to be performed below their glass transition or melting temperatures. This is the case for photonic crystals generated via ALD infiltration of self-assembled polystyrene templates.

Structural degradation of tungsten sandwiched in hafnia layers determined by in-situ XRD up to 1520 °C.

The high-temperature stability of thermal emitters is one of the critical properties of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems to obtain high radiative power and conversion efficiencies. W and HfO are ideal due to their high melting points and low vapor pressures. At high temperatures and given vacuum conditions, W is prone to oxidation resulting in instantaneous sublimation of volatile W oxides.

Thermal stability of tungsten based metamaterial emitter under medium vacuum and inert gas conditions.

Commercial deployment of thermophotovoltaics (TPV) is lacking behind the implementation of solar PV technology due to limited thermal stability of the selective emitter structures. Most of the TPV emitters demonstrated so far are designed to operate under high vacuum conditions (~10 mbar vacuum pressure), whereas under medium vacuum conditions (~10 mbar vacuum pressure), which are feasible in technical implementations of TPV, these emitters suffer from oxidation due to significant O partial pressure. In this work, the thermal stability of 1D refractory W-HfO based multilayered metamaterial emitter structure is investigated under different vacuum conditions.

Linear Schrödinger equation with temporal evolution for front induced transitions.

The nonlinear Schrödinger equation based on slowly varying approximation is usually applied to describe the pulse propagation in nonlinear waveguides. However, for the case of the front induced transitions (FITs), the pump effect is well described by the dielectric constant perturbation in space and time. Thus, a linear Schrödinger equation (LSE) can be used.

Metamaterial emitter for thermophotovoltaics stable up to 1400 °C.

High temperature stable selective emitters can significantly increase efficiency and radiative power in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. However, optical properties of structured emitters reported so far degrade at temperatures approaching 1200 °C due to various degradation mechanisms. We have realized a 1D structured emitter based on a sputtered W-HfO layered metamaterial and demonstrated desired band edge spectral properties at 1400 °C.

Free-carrier detection in a silicon slab via absorption measurement in 2D integrating cells.

2D integrating cells provide long optical path lengths on a chip by multiple reflections at highly reflective mirrors similar to integrating spheres in free space. Therefore, they build a promising platform for integrated optical absorption sensing. Here, we present first absorption measurements of free carriers generated by a modulated pump laser inside a 2D integrating cell in a silicon slab.

Backscattering design for a focusing grating coupler with fully etched slots for transverse magnetic modes.

Grating couplers are a fundamental building block of integrated optics as they allow light to be coupled from free-space to on-chip components and vice versa. A challenging task in designing any grating coupler is represented by the need for reducing back reflections at the waveguide-grating interface, which introduce additional losses and undesirable interference fringes. Here, we present a design approach for focusing TM grating couplers that minimizes these unwanted reflections by introducing a modified slot that fulfills an anti-reflection condition.

Dataset of ptychographic X-ray computed tomography of inverse opal photonic crystals produced by atomic layer deposition.

This data article describes the detailed parameters for synthesizing mullite inverse opal photonic crystals via Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), as well as the detailed image analysis routine used to interpret the data obtained by the measurement of such photonic crystals, before and after the heat treatment, via Ptychographic X-ray Computed Tomography (PXCT). The data presented in this article are related to the research article by Furlan and co-authors entitled "Photonic materials for high-temperature applications: Synthesis and characterization by X-ray ptychographic tomography" (Furlan et al., 2018).

Coupling between multimode fibers and slab waveguides.

In guided-wave optics, using gratings to couple between single mode waveguides and single mode fibers and vice versa is well-established. In contrast, the coupling between multimode waveguides is more complex and a much less understood topic, even though multimode coupling is essential for the excitation of guided modes from spatially incoherent sources or for the extraction of spatially incoherent radiation from a guided-wave platform. Here, we present the design for a grating that couples multiple modes of a 2D slab waveguide into a multimode fiber and vice versa and discuss the corresponding challenges.

Author Correction: Reflection from a free carrier front via an intraband indirect photonic transition.

The original version of this article contained an error in first sentence of the Acknowledgements, which incorrectly read 'M.A.G, D.

Ewald sphere construction for structural colors.

Disordered structures producing a non-iridescent color impression have been shown to feature a spherically shaped Fourier transform of their refractive-index distribution. We determine the direction and efficiency of scattering from thin films made from such structures with the help of the Ewald sphere construction which follows from first-order scattering approximation. This way we present a simple geometrical argument why these structures are well suited for creating short wavelength colors like blue but are hindered from producing long wavelength colors like red.

Reflection from a free carrier front via an intraband indirect photonic transition.

The reflection of light from moving boundaries is of interest both fundamentally and for applications in frequency conversion, but typically requires high pump power. By using a dispersion-engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide, we are able to achieve a propagating free carrier front with only a moderate on-chip peak power of 6 W in a 6 ps-long pump pulse. We employ an intraband indirect photonic transition of a co-propagating probe, whereby the probe practically escapes from the front in the forward direction.

Bottom-up Fabrication of Multilayer Stacks of 3D Photonic Crystals from Titanium Dioxide.

A strategy for stacking multiple ceramic 3D photonic crystals is developed. Periodically structured porous films are produced by vertical convective self-assembly of polystyrene (PS) microspheres. After infiltration of the opaline templates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of titania and thermal decomposition of the polystyrene matrix, a ceramic 3D photonic crystal is formed.

Blackbody Theory for Hyperbolic Materials.

The blackbody theory is revisited in the case of thermal electromagnetic fields inside uniaxial anisotropic media in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath. When these media are hyperbolic, we show that the spectral energy density of these fields radically differs from that predicted by Planck's blackbody theory and that the maximum of the spectral energy density determined by Wien's law is redshifted. Finally, we derive the Stefan-Boltzmann law for hyperbolic media which becomes a quadratic function of the heat bath temperature.

Single mode thermal emission.

We report on the properties of a thermal emitter which radiates into a single mode waveguide. We show that the maximal power of thermal radiation into a propagating single mode is limited only by the temperature of the thermal emitter and does not depend on other parameters of the waveguide. Furthermore, we show that the power of the thermal emitter cannot be increased by resonant coupling.

Wide-angle reflection-mode spatial filtering and splitting with photonic crystal gratings and single-layer rod gratings.

New diffractive optical elements offering a frequency tolerant, very efficient, high-pass and bandpass spatial filtering over a broad range of incidence angles are demonstrated by numerical simulations. The device operates in reflection mode owing to the (nearly) perfect blazing. It relies on two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystals composed of dielectric rods with simple corrugations at the interface.

Facile deposition of YSZ-inverse photonic glass films.

An alternative all-colloidal and single-step deposition method of yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)-infiltrated polymeric photonic glass films is presented. Heterocoagulation of oppositely charged polystyrene (PS) microspheres and YSZ nanocrystals in aqueous dispersions created PS/YSZ core-shell spheres. These composite particles were deposited on glass substrates by a simple drop-coating process.

Pulse compression and broadening by reflection from a moving front of a photonic crystal.

Previously, the effect of pulse bandwidth compression or broadening was observed in reflection from a moving front together with the Doppler shift. In this letter, an approach is presented, which alters pulse bandwidth without change in the central frequency. It occurs when light is reflected from a moving front of an otherwise stationary photonic crystal.

Optical three-port circulators made with ring resonators.

We propose a circulator consisting of a ring resonator coupled to three waveguides with Bragg reflectors at one end of each waveguide. A magneto-optically active material placed inside the ring resonator causes the two counter-propagating modes to split in resonance frequency, which can be exploited for perfect circulation by properly adjusting the coupling between the three waveguides and the ring. Such a device features a transmission spectrum that is similar to three-port photonic crystal circulators but is much simpler to build as it only contains elements that have already been experimentally realized.

Optically induced indirect photonic transitions in a slow light photonic crystal waveguide.

We demonstrate indirect photonic transitions in a silicon slow light photonic crystal waveguide. The transitions are driven by an optically generated refractive index front that moves along the waveguide and interacts with a signal pulse copropagating in the structure. We experimentally confirm a theoretical model which indicates that the ratio of the frequency and wave vector shifts associated with the indirect photonic transition is identical to the propagation velocity of the refractive index front.

Vertical convective coassembly of refractory YSZ inverse opals from crystalline nanoparticles.

A facile deposition method of 3D photonic crystals made of yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was developed. YSZ nanoparticles with primary particle size below 10 nm and cubic crystalline phase were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of solutions of zirconyl nitrate, yttrium nitrate and acetylacetone. Before coassembly with polystyrene (PS) microspheres, a dispersant Dolapix CE64 was added to the dialyzed sol of YSZ nanoparticles to render their surface negatively charged.

Trimming of high-Q-factor silicon ring resonators by electron beam bleaching.

We demonstrate a novel position-resolved resonance trimming strategy for silicon ring resonators. Ring resonators are covered with a chromophore-doped guest host polymer cladding. Illumination of the polymer cladding with high-energy electrons causes a bleaching of the chromophore molecules.