Bloch's theorem was a major milestone that established the principle of bandgaps in crystals. Although it was once believed that bandgaps could form only under conditions of periodicity and long-range correlations for Bloch's theorem, this restriction was disproven by the discoveries of amorphous media and quasicrystals. While network and liquid models have been suggested for the interpretation of Bloch-like waves in disordered media, these approaches based on searching for random networks with bandgaps have failed in the deterministic creation of bandgaps. Here we reveal a deterministic pathway to bandgaps in random-walk potentials by applying the notion of supersymmetry to the wave equation. Inspired by isospectrality, we follow a methodology in contrast to previous methods: we transform order into disorder while preserving bandgaps. Our approach enables the formation of bandgaps in extremely disordered potentials analogous to Brownian motion, and also allows the tuning of correlations while maintaining identical bandgaps, thereby creating a family of potentials with 'Bloch-like eigenstates'.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9269 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
June 2017
Middle Tennessee State University, Computational Science Program, Murfreesboro, 37132, USA.
Dielectric multilayer structures with a grating profile on the top-most layer adds an additional degree of freedom to the phase matching conditions for Bloch surface wave excitation. The conditions for Bloch surface wave coupling can be achieved by rotating both polar and azimuthal angles. The generation of Bloch surface waves as a function of azimuthal angle has similar characteristics to conventional grating coupled Bloch surface waves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe existence of Bloch surface waves in periodic dielectric multilayer structures with a surface defect is well known. Not yet recognized is that quasi-crystals and aperiodic dielectric multilayers can also support Bloch-like surface waves. In this work, we numerically show the excitation of Bloch-like surface waves in Fibonacci quasi-crystals and Thue-Morse aperiodic dielectric multilayers using the prism coupling method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
September 2015
Photonic Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Bloch's theorem was a major milestone that established the principle of bandgaps in crystals. Although it was once believed that bandgaps could form only under conditions of periodicity and long-range correlations for Bloch's theorem, this restriction was disproven by the discoveries of amorphous media and quasicrystals. While network and liquid models have been suggested for the interpretation of Bloch-like waves in disordered media, these approaches based on searching for random networks with bandgaps have failed in the deterministic creation of bandgaps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
March 2003
Instituto de Física Aplicada, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
Bloch-like surface waves associated with a quasiperiodic structure are observed in a classic wave propagation experiment which consists of pulse propagation with a shallow fluid covering a quasiperiodically drilled bottom. We show that a transversal pulse propagates as a plane wave with quasiperiodic modulation, displaying the characteristic undulatory propagation in this quasiperiodic system and reinforcing the idea that analogous concepts to Bloch functions can be applied to quasicrystals under certain circumstances.
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