Shape optimization of optical microscale inclusions

TL;DR

This paper develops a shape optimization framework for optical metamaterials with microscale inclusions, using homogenization theory and numerical algorithms to tailor effective permittivity.

Contribution

It introduces a deformation-based shape optimization method for microscale inclusions in optical metamaterials, ensuring well-posedness and providing a numerical scheme.

Findings

The optimization problem is mathematically well-posed.

The numerical scheme effectively designs inclusions with desired permittivity.

The approach enables tailored electromagnetic properties in metamaterials.

Abstract

This paper describes a class of shape optimization problems for optical metamaterials comprised of periodic microscale inclusions composed of a dielectric, low-dimensional material suspended in a non-magnetic bulk dielectric. The shape optimization approach is based on a homogenization theory for time-harmonic Maxwell's equations that describes effective material parameters for the propagation of electromagnetic waves through the metamaterial. The control parameter of the optimization is a deformation field representing the deviation of the microscale geometry from a reference configuration of the cell problem. This allows for describing the homogenized effective permittivity tensor as a function of the deformation field. We show that the underlying deformed cell problem is well-posed and regular. This, in turn, proves that the shape optimization problem is well-posed. In addition, a numerical scheme is formulated that utilizes an adjoint formulation with either gradient descent or BFGS as optimization algorithms. The developed algorithm is tested numerically on a number of prototypical shape optimization problems with a prescribed effective permittivity tensor as the target.