Photonic Systems Brown Bag Seminar Series

Thursday, February 16, 2006, at 12 noon                        RLE Haus  Conf. room 36-428

"THz Phonon Polaritons in Patterned Materials"

Eric Statz

THz frequency phonon-polaritons within ferroelectric crystals allow the
excitation and detection of oscillating electromagnetic fields within those
crystals.   Past efforts in the Nelson Group have centered around
experimentally showing the bulk dispersion relationship using both broadband and
narrowband methods, with femtosecond pump-probe techniques used to generate and
detect the phonon-polaritons.  Introducing field confinement in 1, 2 or 3
dimensions, through the patterning of the ferroelectric crystal, allows various
structures such as waveguides, resonators and photonic crystals to be produced.
Experimental images of the fields with the patterned crystals are compared with
the expected fields, simulated using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD)
techniques.