Surface plasmon resonance in nanostructured metal films under the Kretschmann configuration

We systematically investigated the surface plasmon resonance in one-dimensional (1D) subwavelength nanostructured metal films under the Kretschmann configuration. We calculated the reflectance, transmittance, and absorption for varying the dielectric fill factor, the period of the 1D nanostructure, and the metal film thickness. We have found that the small dielectric slits in the metal films reduce the surface plasmon resonance angle and move it toward the critical angle for total internal reflection. The reduction in surface plasmon resonance angle in nanostructured metal films is due to the increased intrinsic free electron oscillation frequency in metal nanostructures. Also we have found that the increasing the spatial frequency of the 1D nanograting reduces the surface plasmon resonance angle, which indicates that less momentum is needed to match the momentum of the surface plasmon-polariton. The variation in the nanostructured metal film thickness changes the resonance angle slightly, but mainly remains as a mean to adjust the coupling between the incident optical wave and the surface plasmon-polariton wave. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

Surface-electrode point Paul trap

We present a model as well as experimental results for a surface electrode radiofrequency Paul trap that has a circular electrode geometry well suited for trapping single ions and two-dimensional planar ion crystals. The trap design is compatible with microfabrication and offers a simple method by which the height of the trapped ions above the surface may be changed in situ. We demonstrate trapping of single Sr88+ ions over an ion height range of 200-1000 μm for several hours under Doppler laser cooling and use these to characterize the trap, finding good agreement with our model. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

Far-field analysis of axially symmetric three-dimensional directional cloaks.

Axisymmetric radiating and scattering structures whose rotational invariance is broken by non-axisymmetric excitations present an important class of problems in electromagnetics. For such problems, a cylindrical wave decomposition formalism can be used to efficiently obtain numerical solutions to the full-wave frequency-domain problem. Often, the far-field, or Fraunhofer region is of particular interest in scattering cross-section and radiation pattern calculations; yet, it is usually impractical to compute full-wave solutions for this region. Here, we propose a generalization of the Stratton-Chu far-field integral adapted for 2.5D formalism. The integration over a closed, axially symmetric surface is analytically reduced to a line integral on a meridional plane. We benchmark this computational technique by comparing it with analytical Mie solutions for a plasmonic nanoparticle, and apply it to the design of a three-dimensional polarization-insensitive cloak.

A New Method for Modeling Free Surface Flows and Fluid-structure Interaction with Ocean Applications

The computational modeling of ocean waves and ocean-faring devices poses numerous challenges. Among these are the need to stably and accurately represent both the fluid-fluid interface between water and air as well as the fluid-structure interfaces arising between solid devices and one or more fluids. As techniques are developed to stably and accurately balance the interactions between fluid and structural solvers at these boundaries, a similarly pressing challenge is the development of algorithms that are massively scalable and capable of performing large-scale three-dimensional simulations on reasonable time scales. This dissertation introduces two separate methods for approaching this problem, with the first focusing on the development of sophisticated fluid-fluid interface representations and the second focusing primarily on scalability and extensibility to higher-order methods.

We begin by introducing the narrow-band gradient-augmented level set method (GALSM) for incompressible multiphase Navier-Stokes flow. This is the first use of the high-order GALSM for a fluid flow application, and its reliability and accuracy in modeling ocean environments is tested extensively. The method demonstrates numerous advantages over the traditional level set method, among these a heightened conservation of fluid volume and the representation of subgrid structures.

Next, we present a finite-volume algorithm for solving the incompressible Euler equations in two and three dimensions in the presence of a flow-driven free surface and a dynamic rigid body. In this development, the chief concerns are efficiency, scalability, and extensibility (to higher-order and truly conservative methods). These priorities informed a number of important choices: The air phase is substituted by a pressure boundary condition in order to greatly reduce the size of the computational domain, a cut-cell finite-volume approach is chosen in order to minimize fluid volume loss and open the door to higher-order methods, and adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is employed to focus computational effort and make large-scale 3D simulations possible. This algorithm is shown to produce robust and accurate results that are well-suited for the study of ocean waves and the development of wave energy conversion (WEC) devices.