Open AccessLight-opals interaction modeling by direct numerical solution of Maxwell’s equations
Author(s) -
Alessandro Vaccari,
Antonino Calà Lesina,
Luca Cristoforetti,
Andrea Chiappini,
Luigi Crema,
L. Calliari,
Lora Ramunno,
Pierre Berini,
M. Ferrari
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.027739
Subject(s) - finite difference time domain method , photonic crystal , optics , transmittance , maxwell's equations , materials science , brillouin zone , dielectric , crystal (programming language) , permittivity , boundary value problem , periodic boundary conditions , physics , optoelectronics , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
This work describes a 3-D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) computational approach for the optical characterization of an opal photonic crystal. To fully validate the approach we compare the computed transmittance of a crystal model with the transmittance of an actual crystal sample, as measured over the 400 ÷ 750 nm wavelength range. The opal photonic crystal considered has a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice structure of spherical particles made of polystyrene (a non-absorptive material with constant relative dielectric permittivity). Light-matter interaction is described by numerically solving Maxwell's equations via a parallelized FDTD code. Periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) at the outer edges of the crystal are used to effectively enforce an infinite lateral extension of the sample. A method to study the propagating Bloch modes inside the crystal bulk is also proposed, which allows the reconstruction of the ω-k dispersion curve for k sweeping discretely the Brillouin zone of the crystal.