Light-opals interaction modeling by direct numerical solution of Maxwell's equations

authored by

Alessandro Vaccari, Antonino Calà Lesina, Luca Cristoforetti, Andrea Chiappini, Luigi Crema, Lucia Calliari, Lora Ramunno, Pierre Berini, Maurizio Ferrari

Abstract

This work describes a 3-D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) computational approach for the optical characterization of an opal photonic crystal. To fully validate the approach we compare the computed transmittance of a crystal model with the transmittance of an actual crystal sample, as measured over the 400 ÷ 750 nm wavelength range. The opal photonic crystal considered has a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice structure of spherical particles made of polystyrene (a non-absorptive material with constant relative dielectric permittivity). Light-matter interaction is described by numerically solving Maxwell's equations via a parallelized FDTD code. Periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) at the outer edges of the crystal are used to effectively enforce an infinite lateral extension of the sample. A method to study the propagating Bloch modes inside the crystal bulk is also proposed, which allows the reconstruction of the ω-k dispersion curve for k sweeping discretely the Brillouin zone of the crystal.

External Organisation(s)

Fondazione Bruno Kessler
University of Ottawa
Provincia Autonoma di Trento
National Research Council Italy (CNR)

Type

Article

Journal

Optics express

Volume

22

Pages

27739-27749

No. of pages

11

ISSN

1094-4087

Publication date

31.10.2014

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.22.027739 (Access: Unknown)