Spring 2005 Physics Colloquium

March 25; Friday, PAS 220, 3pm

Shanhui Fan
Stanford University

Resonances in photonic crystals and nanophotonics

The developments of photonic crystals and nanophotonic devices allow unprecendented control over the behavior of light. One of the very exciting aspects of these structures are the creation of wavelength-scale and sub-wavelength-scale resonances. We will argue that these resonances form a new basis for exploring optical physics. As examples, we will report on some of recent works on using Fano interference to construct mechanically tunable photonic crystal structures that are highly compact; on coherent stopping, storage and time-reversal of light; and on new artificial optical materials with geometrically controlled refractive index.