Control of light by curved space in nanophotonic structures

Rivka Bekenstein; Yossef Kabessa; Yonatan Sharabi; Or Tal; Nader Engheta; Gadi Eisenstein; Aharon J. Agranat; Mordechai Segev

doi:10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0

Control of light by curved space in nanophotonic structures

Rivka Bekenstein, Yossef Kabessa, Yonatan Sharabi, Or Tal, Nader Engheta, Gadi Eisenstein, Aharon J. Agranat, Mordechai Segev

Department of Applied Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nanophotonics is based on the ability to construct structures with specific spatial distributions of the refractive index. Conventional nanophotonic structures are fabricated in planar settings, similar to electronic integrated circuits. We present a new class of nanophotonic structures with intricate design in three dimensions inspired by general relativity concepts, where the evolution of light is controlled through the space curvature of the medium. We demonstrate this concept by studying the evolution of light in a paraboloid structure inspired by the Schwarzschild metric describing the space surrounding a massive black hole. Our construction allows control over the trajectories, the diffraction properties and the phase and group velocities of wavepackets propagating within the curved-space structure. Finally, our structure exhibits tunnelling through an electromagnetic bottleneck by transforming guided modes into radiation modes and back. This generic concept can serve as the basis for curved nanophotonics and can be employed in integrated photonic circuits.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	664-670
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Photonics
Volume	11
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0
State	Published - 1 Oct 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research. R.B. acknowledges support from the Adams Fellowship Program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the support of the National Science Foundation through a grant to ITAMP. Y.K. and A.J.A. thank Y. Garcia at the Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science for advice and assistance in using the Nanoscribe system.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s).

Access to Document

10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0

Cite this

@article{43977c7279ee490bb462f07e15ac3107,

title = "Control of light by curved space in nanophotonic structures",

abstract = "Nanophotonics is based on the ability to construct structures with specific spatial distributions of the refractive index. Conventional nanophotonic structures are fabricated in planar settings, similar to electronic integrated circuits. We present a new class of nanophotonic structures with intricate design in three dimensions inspired by general relativity concepts, where the evolution of light is controlled through the space curvature of the medium. We demonstrate this concept by studying the evolution of light in a paraboloid structure inspired by the Schwarzschild metric describing the space surrounding a massive black hole. Our construction allows control over the trajectories, the diffraction properties and the phase and group velocities of wavepackets propagating within the curved-space structure. Finally, our structure exhibits tunnelling through an electromagnetic bottleneck by transforming guided modes into radiation modes and back. This generic concept can serve as the basis for curved nanophotonics and can be employed in integrated photonic circuits.",

author = "Rivka Bekenstein and Yossef Kabessa and Yonatan Sharabi and Or Tal and Nader Engheta and Gadi Eisenstein and Agranat, {Aharon J.} and Mordechai Segev",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research. R.B. acknowledges support from the Adams Fellowship Program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the support of the National Science Foundation through a grant to ITAMP. Y.K. and A.J.A. thank Y. Garcia at the Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science for advice and assistance in using the Nanoscribe system. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 The Author(s).",

year = "2017",

month = oct,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0",

language = "American English",

volume = "11",

pages = "664--670",

journal = "Nature Photonics",

issn = "1749-4885",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "10",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Control of light by curved space in nanophotonic structures

AU - Bekenstein, Rivka

AU - Kabessa, Yossef

AU - Sharabi, Yonatan

AU - Tal, Or

AU - Engheta, Nader

AU - Eisenstein, Gadi

AU - Agranat, Aharon J.

AU - Segev, Mordechai

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research. R.B. acknowledges support from the Adams Fellowship Program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the support of the National Science Foundation through a grant to ITAMP. Y.K. and A.J.A. thank Y. Garcia at the Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science for advice and assistance in using the Nanoscribe system. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s).

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - Nanophotonics is based on the ability to construct structures with specific spatial distributions of the refractive index. Conventional nanophotonic structures are fabricated in planar settings, similar to electronic integrated circuits. We present a new class of nanophotonic structures with intricate design in three dimensions inspired by general relativity concepts, where the evolution of light is controlled through the space curvature of the medium. We demonstrate this concept by studying the evolution of light in a paraboloid structure inspired by the Schwarzschild metric describing the space surrounding a massive black hole. Our construction allows control over the trajectories, the diffraction properties and the phase and group velocities of wavepackets propagating within the curved-space structure. Finally, our structure exhibits tunnelling through an electromagnetic bottleneck by transforming guided modes into radiation modes and back. This generic concept can serve as the basis for curved nanophotonics and can be employed in integrated photonic circuits.

AB - Nanophotonics is based on the ability to construct structures with specific spatial distributions of the refractive index. Conventional nanophotonic structures are fabricated in planar settings, similar to electronic integrated circuits. We present a new class of nanophotonic structures with intricate design in three dimensions inspired by general relativity concepts, where the evolution of light is controlled through the space curvature of the medium. We demonstrate this concept by studying the evolution of light in a paraboloid structure inspired by the Schwarzschild metric describing the space surrounding a massive black hole. Our construction allows control over the trajectories, the diffraction properties and the phase and group velocities of wavepackets propagating within the curved-space structure. Finally, our structure exhibits tunnelling through an electromagnetic bottleneck by transforming guided modes into radiation modes and back. This generic concept can serve as the basis for curved nanophotonics and can be employed in integrated photonic circuits.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030260940&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0

DO - 10.1038/s41566-017-0008-0

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85030260940

SN - 1749-4885

VL - 11

SP - 664

EP - 670

JO - Nature Photonics

JF - Nature Photonics

IS - 10

ER -

Control of light by curved space in nanophotonic structures

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this