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Scientific Reports

Revealing the truth about ‘trapped rainbow’ storage of light in metamaterials

Sailing He, Yingran He, Yi Jin

Published Aug 16, 2012• 88 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It was claimed that the incident light can be gradually slowed down and finally trapped in a tapered metamaterial waveguide. Here we show that the energy incident from the input port of the tapered metamaterial waveguide will be totally reflected (instead of being trapped) due to the strong intermodal coupling between the forward and backward modes. The underlying physical mechanism for this strong intermodal-coupling is given. The occurrence of energy reflection is unambiguously proved using several independent methods, (1) the semi-analytical mode matching technique, (2) the numerical finite element simulation, (3) the requirement of energy and momentum conservation, and (4) an experimental verification at microwave frequency. The dream of 'trapped rainbow' for storage of light might still be possible if this intermodal coupling could be blocked, and our study provides a useful guidance for such an endeavor.

DOI
10.1038/srep00583

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It was claimed that the incident light can be gradually slowed down and finally trapped in a tapered metamaterial waveguide. Here we show that the energy incident from the input port of the tapered metamaterial waveguide will be totally reflected (instead of being trapped) due to the strong intermodal coupling between the forward and backward modes. The underlying physical mechanism for this strong intermodal-coupling is given. The occurrence of energy reflection is unambiguously proved using several independent methods, (1) the semi-analytical mode matching technique, (2) the numerical finite element simulation, (3) the requirement of energy and momentum conservation, and (4) an experimental verification at microwave frequency. The dream of 'trapped rainbow' for storage of light might still be possible if this intermodal coupling could be blocked, and our study provides a useful guidance for such an endeavor.
We review recent theoretical and experimental in progress in the realisation of slow and stopped light by the 'trapped rainbow' principle in optical metamaterials featuring negative electromagnetic parameters (permittivity/permeability and/or refractive index). We explain how and why these structures can enable complete stopping of light even in the presence of disorder and, simultaneously, dissipative losses. Using full-wave numerical simulations we show that the incorporation of thin layers made of an active medium adjacently to the core layer of a negative-refractive-index waveguide can completely remove dissipative losses - in a slow-light regime where the effective index of the guided wave is negative.
The effect on the propagation of the pulse on varying the thickness of the core of an adiabatically tapered negative refractive-index metamaterial (MM) heterostructure is investigated. In addition to the 'trapped rainbow' effect, a corresponding arrangement in which the refractive index of a uniform core layer, rather than its thickness is adiabatically varied, is numerically studied. This avoids numerical issues related to the boundary conditions between negative and positive index layers, which normally require averaging the tangential and normal field components at the core/cladding interfaces.
We review recent theoretical and experimental breakthroughs in the realm of slow and stopped light in structured photonic media featuring negative electromagnetic parameters (permittivity/permeability and/or refractive index). We explain how and why these structures can enable complete stopping of light even in the presence of disorder and, simultaneously, dissipative losses. Using full-wave numerical simulations we show that the incorporation of thin layers made of an active medium adjacently to the core layer of a negative-refractive-index waveguide can completely remove dissipative losses – in a slow-light regime where the effective index of the guided wave is negative.
It is known that light can be slowed down in the vicinity of resonances in dispersive materials.5 In order to reduce the group velocity (vg) of light coherently, there are primarily two major approaches employing either electronic or optical resonances. In the electronic scheme, drastic slowing down and complete stopping of light pulses can be accomplished by converting optical signals into electronic coherences.6-9 The use of electronic states to coherently store the optical information, however, imposes severe constraints in the scheme, including narrow bandwidth, limited working wavelengths and strong temperature dependence. While promising steps have been taken towards slowing light in solidstate media and semiconductor nanostructures operating at room temperature,10 it still remains a great challenge to implement such schemes on-a-chip incorporating optoelectronic devices.9 Besides, only a few special and delicate electronic resonances available in nature possess the required properties. As a result, there has been great interest in pursuing alternative approaches utilizing optical resonances in photonic structures, such as microcavities,11photonic crystals,12 semiconductor waveguide ring resonators,13etc. In 2007, researchers in UK proposed a tapered structure based on metamaterial with negative refractive index.14 Theoretically, this structure should be able to slow light to a standstill. The material would halt each frequency of light, and hence color, at slightly different places, to make so called “trapped rainbow” (see Fig. 9.1), which opened a new and attractive approach to stopping light.
We show how guided electromagnetic waves propagating along an adiabatically tapered negative-refractive-index metamaterial heterostructure can be brought to a complete halt. It is analytically shown that, in principle, this method simultaneously allows for broad bandwidth operation (since it does not rely on group index resonances), large delay-bandwidth products (since a wave packet can be completely stopped and buffered indefinitely) and high, almost 100%, in/out-coupling efficiencies. By nature, the presented scheme invokes solid-state materials and, as such, is not subject to low-temperature or atomic coherence limitations. A wave analysis, which demonstrates the halting of a monochromatic field component travelling along the heterostructure, is followed by a pertinent ray analysis, which unmistakably illustrates the trapping of the associated light-ray and the formation of a double light-ray cone ('optical clepsydra') at the point where the ray is trapped. This method for trapping photons conceivably opens the way to a multitude of hybrid optoelectronic devices to be used in 'quantum information' processing, communication networks and signal processors and may herald a new realm of combined metamaterials and slow light research.