Talk given by Prof. Carsten Rockstuhl Using self-assembly bottom-up strategies for the fabrication of optical nanostructures offers unprecedented opportunities to observe novel optical effects and to enable unique applications. However, the theoretical and numerical description of the interaction of light with these structures is challenging. An exact analysis is often not possible since largely disparate critical length scales and an amorphous arrangement complicate their description. Besides a general introduction to my fields of research, I will describe in this presentation some of our recent contributions to study the optical properties of such amorphous nanophotonic materials on theoretical and numerical grounds whereas emphasis is put on two aspects. The first aspect concerns self-assembled amorphous metamaterials. Here, only the properties of individual meta-atom can be described exactly and the response from the entire material has to be extracted thereof. Besides a strong optical magnetism, we will show that more primary applications can be equally perceived with suitable meta- atoms such as, e.g., scattering cancellation cloaks or novel light sources if quantum emitters are coupled to closely-spaced metallic nanoparticles. The second aspect concerns the photon management in solar cells. Here, the challenge is to identify micro- and nanooptical structures that can enhance the absorption in soar cells across an extended spectral domain. For this purpose structures with a suitable amorphous character are especially preferable, e.g. randomly textured surfaces. Insights into the functionality of such textured surfaces are given and strategies for their optimization are discussed.

This event is part of the eventgroup INT Talks

Homepage
https://www.int.kit.edu/events.php

Speaker
Prof. Carsten Rockstuhl

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute of Theoretical Solid State Physics

Organizer
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst Hahn
Institute of Nanotechnology (INT)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen
Mail: horst hahn ∂does-not-exist.kit edu

Targetgroup
Interested / Everyone