Spatially shaping waves to penetrate deep inside a forbidden gap

Abstract

It is well known that waves incident upon a crystal are transported only over a limited distance - the Bragg length - before being reflected by Bragg interference. Here, we demonstrate how to send waves much deeper into crystals, by studying light in exemplary two-dimensional silicon photonic crystals. By spatially shaping the optical wavefronts, we observe that the intensity of laterally scattered light, that probes the internal energy density, is enhanced at a tunable distance away from the front surface. The intensity is up to $100\times$ enhanced compared to random wavefronts and extends as far as $8\times$ the Bragg length. Our novel steering of waves inside a forbidden gap exploits the transport channels induced by unavoidable deviations from perfect periodicity, here unavoidable fabrication deviations.

arXiv comment7 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (27)

• Cavity Optomechanics
• Topological Photonics
• Anderson Transitions
• Introduction to Quantum Noise, Measurement and Amplification
• Integrated Photonic Quantum Technologies
• Wavefront Modulation and Subwavelength Diffractive Acoustics with an Acoustic Metasurface
• Light fields in complex media: mesoscopic scattering meets wave control
• Universal optimal transmission of light through disordered materials
• Extremal transmission at the Dirac point of a photonic band structure
• Isotropic Band Gaps and Freeform Waveguides Observed in Hyperuniform Disordered Photonic Solids
• Crystalline metamaterials for topological properties at subwavelength scales
• Lasing oscillation in a three-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavity with a complete bandgap
• Optical extinction due to intrinsic structural variations of photonic crystals
• Coherent control of total transmission of light through disordered media
• Filtering Random Matrices: The Effect of Incomplete Channel Control in Multiple Scattering
• Control of energy density inside disordered medium by coupling to open or closed channels
• Photonic Band Gaps in 3D Network Structures with Short-range Order
• Broadband Coherent Enhancement of Transmission and Absorption in Disordered Media
• The local density of optical states in the 3D band gap of a finite photonic crystal
• Optical transmission matrix as a probe of the photonic interaction strength
• Observation of sub-Bragg diffraction of waves in crystals
• Photonic hyperuniform networks by silicon double inversion of polymer templates
• X-ray imaging non-destructively identifies functional 3D photonic nanostructures
• "Cartesian light": unconventional propagation of light in a 3D superlattice of coupled cavities within a 3D photonic band gap
• Experimental probe of a complete 3D photonic band gap
• Enhancing light transmission through a random medium with inhomogeneous scattering and loss
• Super-universality of eigenchannel structures and possible optical applications

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Depth-Targeted Energy Deposition Deep Inside Scattering Media
• Delivering Broadband Light Deep Inside Diffusive Media
• Enhanced Absorption in thin and ultrathin silicon films by 3D photonic band gap back reflectors
• Scaling theory of wave confinement in classical and quantum periodic systems
• Observation of mutual extinction and transparency in light scattering
• Observation of light propagation through a three-dimensional cavity superlattice in a 3D photonic band gap
• Controlled light scattering of a single nanoparticle by wavefront shaping
• Non-utopian optical properties computed of a tomographically reconstructed real photonic nanostructure
• Dispersion of backward-propagating waves in a surface defect on a 3D photonic band gap crystal
• Unsupervised Machine Learning to Classify the Confinement of Waves in Periodic Superstructures
• Wavefront shaping through a free-form scattering object
• Symmetries and Wavefunctions of Photons Confined in 3D Photonic Band Gap Superlattices