Computational investigations of nanophotonic systems

Abstract

In this thesis, I developed code in the MEEP finite-difference time domain classical electromagnetic solver to simulate the quantum phenomenon of spontaneous emission and its enhancement by a photonic crystal. The results of these simulations were favorably cross-checked with semi-analytical predictions and experimental results. This code was further extended to simulate spontaneous emission from the top half of a sphere, where the top half is a dielectric material and the bottom half is a metal, in order to determine how effective the metal is at reflecting the emission toward the top. Separately, I used the SCUFF-EM boundary element method classical electromagnetic solver to simulate absorption and scattering, together called extinction, of infrared light from nanoparticles, and used those results to optimize the nanoparticle shapes and sizes for extinction at the desired infrared wavelength.