Presenter Information

Wesley Mills, Utah State University

Class

Article

College

College of Science

Department

Physics Department

Faculty Mentor

T.C. Shen

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

A material with broadband light absorbing capabilities has the potential for much usefulness in devices such as photovoltaics and thermoelectrics. By energy conservation, a non-transparent material with low reflectance will be highly absorbing. Thus, much research has been devoted to understanding what makes material having low reflectance across a wide wavelength spectrum. Here, mode matching at the boundaries is used to solve a plane wave of light scattering from an array of apertures in a perfectly conducting metal. This approach provides numerical solutions of Maxwell’s equations, instead of the commonly used finite-difference-time-domain simulations which provide solutions but can vary with the setup parameters involved in the simulation. My results indicate that interference effects are the primary cause behind the dark nature of periodic metasurfaces. These results provide guidelines to design subwavelength structures that can achieve low reflectance over a broader range of wavelengths.

Location

Logan, UT

Start Date

4-11-2023 10:30 AM

End Date

4-11-2023 11:30 AM

Included in

Physics Commons

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Apr 11th, 10:30 AM Apr 11th, 11:30 AM

Light Scattering From Periodic, Conducting Nanostructures

Logan, UT

A material with broadband light absorbing capabilities has the potential for much usefulness in devices such as photovoltaics and thermoelectrics. By energy conservation, a non-transparent material with low reflectance will be highly absorbing. Thus, much research has been devoted to understanding what makes material having low reflectance across a wide wavelength spectrum. Here, mode matching at the boundaries is used to solve a plane wave of light scattering from an array of apertures in a perfectly conducting metal. This approach provides numerical solutions of Maxwell’s equations, instead of the commonly used finite-difference-time-domain simulations which provide solutions but can vary with the setup parameters involved in the simulation. My results indicate that interference effects are the primary cause behind the dark nature of periodic metasurfaces. These results provide guidelines to design subwavelength structures that can achieve low reflectance over a broader range of wavelengths.