CIPS/OSA Brown Bag Seminar Series

Thursday, September 17, 2009

12 noon , RLE Haus Conference Room 36-428

Working at the Speed of Light

John Joannopoulos

Photonic crystals are periodic dielectric structures that have a band gap that forbids propagation of a certain frequency range of light. This and other properties of these systems enable one to control light with amazing facility and produce effects that are impossible with conventional optics. A short tutorial-introduction of the basic concepts involving these materials is presented followed by several examples where novel, and even anomalous, light behavior can be obtained. Examples include the possibility of reverse Doppler shifts, light-capture with large Dw tunable re-emission, bandwidth-narrowing without losses, and one-way waveguiding with immunity to disorder and obstacles.