Transformation Optics with Photonic Band Gap Media

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel approach to transformation optics using low-loss, dielectric photonic crystals that can mimic anisotropic media, enabling optical cloaks and devices at visible wavelengths with minimal attenuation.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of optical media based on adiabatically modulated photonic crystals, extending transformation optics to low-loss dielectric materials for visible light applications.

Findings

Photonic crystals can mimic anisotropic dispersion relations.

Optical cloaks can be constructed from transparent dielectric materials.

Losses in these media can be as low as 10 dB/km.

Abstract

We introduce a class of optical media based on adiabatically modulated, dielectric-only, and potentially extremely low-loss, photonic crystals. The media we describe represent a generalization of the eikonal limit of transformation optics (TO). The foundation of the concept is the possibility to fit frequency isosurfaces in the k-space of photonic crystals with elliptic surfaces, allowing them to mimic the dispersion relation of light in anisotropic effective media. Photonic crystal cloaks and other TO devices operating at visible wavelengths can be constructed from optically transparent substances like glasses, whose attenuation coefficient can be as small as 10 dB/km, suggesting the TO design methodology can be applied to the development of optical devices not limited by the losses inherent to metal-based, passive metamaterials.