Quantum optics of hyperbolic metamaterials

Zubin Jacob

University of Alberta

Abstract:

Nanotechnology has paved the way for artificial materials which have electromagnetic, mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties beyond those which are ordinarily found in nature. Nanostructured materials hold the promise:- to usher in a new generation of photonic devices with imaging and sensing capabilities well beyond the reach of conventional optical systems, to drive CMOS compatible nanophotonics research for sustaining Moore's law and even address pressing societal needs of solar energy harvesting. This talk will focus on optical metamaterials with intriguing physical properties for device applications. 

The particular class of metamaterials considered have a hyperbolic dispersion relation for propagating electromagnetic waves in the medium. We unravel a unique singularity in the photonic density of states (PDOS) of such hyperbolic metamaterials. The remarkable property which sets it apart from other photonic systems is the broad bandwidth in which the PDOS diverges paving the way for a new approach to controlling broadband light-matter interaction. We use the unique electromagnetic metamaterial states that cause the divergence in the PDOS for two specific device applications: subdiffraction imaging and quantum optics

We will first present the Optical Hyperlens, a metamaterial imaging device that can break the age old diffraction limit. We will review the progress made by different groups on its experimental realization for applications such as nano-bio imaging and subdiffraction lithography. 

The main focus of the presentation will be on quantum optics utilizing hyperbolic metamaterials. The spontaneous emission from an atom or artificial atoms such as quantum dots can be enhanced and directional in the vicinity of such hyperbolic metamaterials leading to a metamaterial structure that exhibits a broadband Purcell effect

 

Biography:

Zubin Jacob is currently an assistant professor of ECE at University of Alberta, Canada. He completed his Ph.D from Purdue university (2010) where he received the Dmitri N. Chorafas best dissertation prize awarded only to around 20 students annually. He completed his M.A.E.E (2006) and M.S.E.E (2007) from Princeton University and B.Tech in Electrical Engineering (2004) from the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay. He is also the recipient of the Best Student Paper/Poster Presentation Prize at ETOPIM 7 (2006), the SPIE Graduate Fellowship Award for potential long range contributions to optics and optical engineering (2008), Theodor Maiman Best Student Paper Award finalist position at CLEO-IQEC (2009) and the IEEE Photonics Society fellowship (2010). He serves as a reviewer for Optics Letters, Optics Express, JOSA B, Applied Physics B, Journal of Applied Physics, Applied Optics and is a member of IEEE, OSA, SPIE and APS.