Physics of the zero- photonic gap: fundamentals and latest developments

Nanophotonics

article

Lei Zhou¹  Zhengyong Song¹  Xueqin Huang²  C.T. Chan² 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education) and Physics Department, Fudan University;Physics Department, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

关键词: left-handed materials;    meta materials;    photonic band gaps;    photonic crystals;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2012-0020

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

A short overview is presented on the research works related to the zero- gap, which appears as the volume-averaged refraction index vanishes in photonic structures containing both positive and negative-index materials. After introducing the basic concept of the zero- gap based on both rigorous mathematics and numerical simulations, the unique properties of such a band gap are discussed, including its robustness against weak disorder, wide-incidence-angle operation and scaling invariance, which do not belong to a conventional Bragg gap. We then describe the simulation and experimental verifications on the zero- gap and its extraordinary properties in different frequency domains. After that, the unusual photonic and physical effects discovered based on the zero- gap and their potential applications are reviewed, including beam manipulations and nonlinear effects. Before concluding this review, several interesting ideas inspired from the zero- gap works will be introduced, including the zero-phase gaps, zero-permittivity and zero-permeability gaps, complete band gaps, and zero-refraction-index materials with Dirac-Cone dispersion.

【 授权许可】

CC BY