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We demonstrate the possibility of room-temperature, thermal equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of exciton-polaritons in a multiple quantum well (QW) system composed of InGaAs quantum wells surrounded by InP barriers, allowing for the emission of light near telecommunication wavelengths. The QWs are embedded in a cavity consisting of double slanted pore (SP2) photonic crystals composed of InP. We consider exciton-polaritons that result from the strong coupling between the multiple quantum well excitons and photons in the lowest planar guided mode within the photonic band gap (PBG) of the photonic crystal cavity. The collective coupling of three QWs results in a vacuum Rabi splitting of 3% of the bare exciton recombination energy. Due to the full three-dimensional PBG exhibited by the SP2 photonic crystal (16% gap to mid-gap frequency ratio), the radiative decay of polaritons is eliminated in all directions. Due to the short exciton-phonon scattering time in InGaAs quantum wells of 0.5 ps and the exciton non-radiative decay time of 200 ps at room temperature, polaritons can achieve thermal equilibrium with the host lattice to form an equilibrium BEC. Using a SP2 photonic crystal with a lattice constant of a = 516 nm, a unit cell height of 2a=730nm and a pore radius of 0.305a = 157 nm, light in the lowest planar guided mode is strongly localized in the central slab layer. The central slab layer consists of 3 nm InGaAs quantum wells with 7 nm InP barriers, in which excitons have a recombination energy of 0.944 eV, a binding energy of 7 meV and a Bohr radius of aB = 10 nm. We take the exciton recombination energy to be detuned 35 meV above the lowest guided photonic mode so that an exciton-polariton has a photonic fraction of approximately 97% per QW. This increases the energy range of small-effective-mass photonlike states and increases the critical temperature for the onset of a Bose-Einstein condensate. With three quantum wells in the central slab layer, the strong light confinement results in light-matter coupling strength of ℏΩ = 13.7 meV. Assuming an exciton density per QW of (15aB) -2 , well below the saturation density, in a 2-D box-trap with a side length of 10 to 500 µm, we predict thermal equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation well above room temperature.

A conceptual lab-in-a-photonic-crystal biosensor is demonstrated that can multiplex four or more distinct disease-markers and distinguish their presence and combinations simultaneously with unique spectral fingerprints. This biosensor consists of a photonic-band-gap, multi-mode waveguide coupled to surface modes on either side, encased in a glass slide with microfluidic channels. The spectral fingerprints consist of multiple peaks in optical transmission vs. frequency that respond sensitively and uniquely in both frequency shift and nonmonotonic change of peak transmittance levels to various analyte bindings. This special property enables complete, logical determination of twelve different combinations of four distinct disease-markers through one scan of the transmission spectrum. The results reveal unique phenomena such as switching between the strong-coupling and weak-coupling combinations of surface states by analyte binding at different locations along the central waveguide. The unconventional transmission spectra are explained using a Landauer-Büttiker, multiple-scattering, transmission theory that reproduces the main features of the exact finite-difference-time-domain simulation.

Semiconductor-microcavity polaritons are composite quasiparticles of excitons and photons, emerging in the strong coupling regime. As quantum superpositions of matter and light, polaritons have much stronger interparticle interactions compared with photons, enabling rapid equilibration and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). Current realizations based on 1D photonic structures, such as Fabry-Pérot microcavities, have limited light-trapping ability resulting in picosecond polariton lifetime. We demonstrate, theoretically, above-room-temperature (up to 590 K) BEC of long-lived polaritons in MoSe2 monolayers sandwiched by simple TiO2 based 3D photonic band gap (PBG) materials. The 3D PBG induces very strong coupling of 40 meV (Rabi splitting of 62 meV) for as few as three dichalcogenide monolayers. Strong light-trapping in the 3D PBG enables the long-lived polariton superfluid to be robust against fabrication-induced disorder and exciton line-broadening.

We demonstrate numerically a 2-D nanostructured design for light trapping in a low band-gap polymer solar cell. Finite element method simulations are used to study the effect of varying nanostructure periodicity, height, and shape on active layer absorption. Maintaining a constant active layer thickness of 100 nm we observe an enhancement in solar absorption of almost 40% relative to a planar cell. Improvements of this magnitude enable single-junction, low-band-gap cells to achieve power conversion efficiencies of 11.2% and perform competitively with even state-of-the-art tandem cells. Our design is also shown to significantly outperform tandem cells at off-normal angles of incidence.

We demonstrate, numerically, that with a 60 nanometer layer of optical up-conversion material, embedded with plasmonic core-shell nano-rings and placed below a sub-micron silicon conical-pore photonic crystal it is possible to absorb sunlight well above the Lambertian limit in the 300-1100 nm range. With as little as 500 nm, equivalent bulk thickness of silicon, the maximum achievable photo-current density (MAPD) is about 36 mA/cm2, using above-bandgap sunlight. This MAPD increases to about 38 mA/cm2 for one micron of silicon. Our architecture also provides solar intensity enhancement by a factor of at least 1400 at the sub-bandgap wavelength of 1500 nm, due to plasmonic and photonic crystal resonances, enabling a further boost of photo-current density from up-conversion of sub-bandgap sunlight. With an external solar concentrator, providing 100 suns, light intensities sufficient for significant nonlinear up-conversion can be realized. Two-photon absorption of sub-bandgap sunlight is further enhanced by the large electromagnetic density of states in the photonic crystal at the re-emission wavelength near 750 nm. It is suggested that this synergy of plasmonic and photonic crystal resonances can lead to unprecedented power conversion efficiency in ultra-thin-film silicon solar cells.

We report what is to our knowledge the first observation of the effect of parallel-to-interface-refraction (PIR) in a three-dimensional, simple-cubic photonic-crystal. PIR is an acutely negative refraction of light inside a photonic-crystal, leading to light-bending by nearly 90 deg over broad wavelengths (λ). The consequence is a longer path length of light in the medium and an improved light absorption beyond the Lambertian limit. As an illustration of the effect, we show near-unity total absorption (≥98%) in λ=520-620 nm and an average absorption of ~94% over λ=400-700 nm for our α-Si:H photonic-crystal sample of an equivalent bulk thickness of t˜=450 nm. Furthermore, we have achieved an ultra-wide angular acceptance of light over θ=0°-80°. This demonstration opens up a new door for light trapping and near-unity solar absorption over broad λs and wide angles.

We derive macroscopic equations of motion for the slowly varying electric field amplitude in three-dimensional active nonlinear optical nanostructures. We show that the microscopic Maxwell equations and polarization dynamics can be simplified to a macroscopic one-dimensional problem in the direction of group velocity. For a three-level active material, we derive the steady-state equations for normal mode frequency, threshold pumping, nonlinear Bloch mode amplitude, and lasing in photonic crystals. Our analytical results accurately recapture the results of exact numerical methods.

Two different transport regimes of light are observed in reflection from the same disordered photonic crystal. A model based on the scaling theory of localization explains the behavior of the path length-resolved reflection at two different probing wavelengths. Our results demonstrate the continuous renormalization of the photon diffusion coefficient measured in reflection from random media.

Three dimensional (3D) ion beam lithography (IBL) is used to directly pattern 3D photonic crystal (PhC) structures in crystalline titania. The process is maskless and direct write. The slanted pore 3D structures with pore diameters of 100 nm having aspect ratio of 8 were formed. It is shown that chemical enhancement of titania removal up to 5.2 times is possible in XeF2 gas for the closest nozzle-to-sample distance; the enhancement was ∼ 1.5 times for the actual 3D patterning due to a sample tilt. Tolerances of structural parameters and optimization of IBL processing required for the fabrication of PhCs with full photonic bandgap in visible spectral range in rutile are outlined. Application potential of 3D-IBL is discussed.

We demonstrate picosecond, high-contrast population flipping of two-level atoms interacting with femtojoule optical pulses in a 3D photonic band gap waveguide. This is the result of giant Mollow splitting caused by strong light localization and a remarkable field-dependent relaxation of the atomic Bloch vector as it evolves near an abrupt jump in the electromagnetic density of states. Unlike steady-state switching, population inversion can remain nearly complete after the pulse subsides. This may be used for multiwavelength channel, all-optical, on-chip information processing.

In real photonic crystals light is scattered by the imperfections of the periodic potential. We study experimentally the propagation of diffused light in silicon inverse opals and report an exceptionally reduced diffusion constant of 3.0+/-0.7 m(2)/s, in samples which are only partially disordered. Waves scattered both by the lattice planes and by their imperfections interfere and light is efficiently trapped in this hybrid scattering regime. Not only higher quality crystals, but also random materials present an order of magnitude bigger diffusion constant and hence weaker scattering.

A general design for high-bandwidth, single-mode, lossless, optical micro-circuitry with fully three-dimensional circuit paths is demonstrated. Our 3D circuit design consists of dense stacking several planar microchip layers into the 2D-3D photonic band gap heterostructures and linking them with vertical interconnects. The 3D microchip enables an extra "dimension" of up to 200 nanometer single-mode wave-guiding in each planar chip layer and 100 nanometer bandwidth chip-to-chip interconnects in a variety of 3D PBG materials, including woodpile, slanted pores, and square spiral 3D PBG materials.