(2014) Mesoscopic transport and control of light through disordered nanowire mats. University of Southampton, Physical Sciences and Engineering, Doctoral Thesis, 115pp.
Abstract
In this thesis the transport of light through disordered, densely packed semiconductor nanowire mats is studied. It is found that the extremely high photonic strength of these samples leads to corrections to the traditional diffusion picture of light transport due to mesoscopic interference. Such effects are characterized by large intensity fluctuations and correlations, and it is found the transport is dominated by only a few independent transmission channels, close to the Anderson localisation regime. In addition to the strongly scattering nanowire samples, comparatively weakly scattering samples of ZnO are investigated, demonstrating mesoscopic effects in a less exotic, isotropic multiple scattering material. Control is obtained over the transmission by a combination of shaping the incident wavefront and harnessing the intrinsic nonlinearity of the semiconductor with ultrafast optical excitation. Through these techniques, a bright focus at an arbitrary point through the nanowires is created which can be modulated by up to 60% in a demonstration of a reconfigurable photonic switch.
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- Faculties (pre 2018 reorg) > Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering (pre 2018 reorg) > Physics & Astronomy (pre 2018 reorg) > Quantum, Light & Matter Group (pre 2018 reorg)
Current Faculties > Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > School of Physics and Astronomy > Physics & Astronomy (pre 2018 reorg) > Quantum, Light & Matter Group (pre 2018 reorg)
School of Physics and Astronomy > Physics & Astronomy (pre 2018 reorg) > Quantum, Light & Matter Group (pre 2018 reorg)
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