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Zero phase delay in negative-refractive-index photonic crystal superlattices

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 499–505 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

We show that optical beams propagating in path-averaged zero-index photonic crystal superlattices can have zero phase delay. The nanofabricated superlattices consist of alternating stacks of negative index photonic crystals and positive index homogeneous dielectric media, where the phase differences corresponding to consecutive primary unit cells are measured with integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers. These measurements demonstrate that at path-averaged zero-index frequencies the phase accumulation remains constant and equal to zero despite the increase in the physical path length. We further demonstrate experimentally that these superlattice zero- bandgaps remain invariant to geometrical changes of the photonic structure and have a center frequency which is deterministically tunable. The properties of the zero- gap frequencies, optical phase, and effective refractive indices are well described by detailed experimental measurements, rigorous theoretical analysis, and comprehensive numerical simulations.

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Figure 1: Schematic of an MZI and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the fabricated device.
Figure 2: Band diagram of the PhC, verification of period-invariant zero- bandgaps, and influence of structural variations on transmission spectra.
Figure 3: MZ interferences with negative refraction PhCs.
Figure 4: Phase measurements.
Figure 5: FSR wavelength dependence corresponding to superlattices in Fig. 4.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R. Chatterjee for helpful discussions and Ayse Selin Kocaman for the preparation of figures. The authors also acknowledge funding support from a NSF CAREER Award (0747787), NSF ECCS (1102257), DARPA InPho and the EPSRC (EP/G030502/1). Electron-beam nanopatterning was carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (contract no. DE-AC02-98CH10886). The authors acknowledge the use of the UCL Legion High Performance Computing Facility and associated support services in the completion of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Optical Nanostructures Laboratory, Center for Integrated Science and Engineering, Solid-State Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, 10027, New York, USA

    S. Kocaman, M. S. Aras, P. Hsieh, J. F. McMillan & C. W. Wong

  2. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Photonics Group, University College London, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK

    C. G. Biris & N. C. Panoiu

  3. The Institute of Microelectronics, 11 Science Park Road, Singapore Science Park II, Singapore, 117685, Singapore

    M. B. Yu & D. L. Kwong

  4. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 11973, USA

    A. Stein

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Contributions

S.K. performed the experiments. M.S.A., M.B.Y., D.L.K. and A.S. nanofabricated the samples. P.H. performed near-field measurements. S.K., J.F.M., C.G.B. and N.C.P. designed and performed the numerical simulations. S.K., N.C.P. and C.W.W. prepared the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to S. Kocaman or C. W. Wong.

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Kocaman, S., Aras, M., Hsieh, P. et al. Zero phase delay in negative-refractive-index photonic crystal superlattices. Nature Photon 5, 499–505 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.129

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