Dissertation
STUDYING THE ORIGIN OF THE NONLINEAR OPTICAL RESPONSE OF COMPLEX STRUCTURES USING MONTE CARLO SAMPLING
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2013
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/112036
Abstract
The field of nonlinear optics has been preoccupied with finding better materials that interact more efficiently with photons. Part of this effort has focused on understand- ing the fundamental concepts underlying light-matter interactions, the fruit of which has led to the theory of fundamental limits of the first and second hyperpolarizabil- ities. Based on this theory, the nonlinear optical response of materials is found to be bounded. The comparison of this limit with experimental values of molecules re- vealed a gap between the two. Attempts to overcome this gap have deepened our understanding about how quantum systems interact with light, the properties of ma- terials that optimize its response, and have led to new numerical and experimental approaches.
In this dissertation, we will review the theory of fundamental limits, its underlying assumptions and the numerical approaches that have been used to investigate the gap. We will discuss the guidelines that the theory provides for making better nonlinear
optical materials and based on them, we propose quantum graphs as a new class of nonlinear optical molecules that can be used to make artificial materials. The quantum mechanical properties of graphs are discussed in detail and the sum rules are used to verify the solutions to the Schro ̀ˆdinger Equation. Starting from the one- electron model, we show that confinement, topology and geometry of graphs can have profound effects on their nonlinear response. We identify star graphs as the best motifs for building more complex graphs with larger nonlinear response.
We then generalize the one-electron model to many-electrons model and employ the jellium model and the Pauli exclusion principle to study the effects of geometry and topology on the nonlinear optical response of electrons inside one-dimensional graph embedded in two dimensional space that represent quantum wires which can be studied experimentally.
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Details
- Title
- STUDYING THE ORIGIN OF THE NONLINEAR OPTICAL RESPONSE OF COMPLEX STRUCTURES USING MONTE CARLO SAMPLING
- Creators
- Shoresh Shafei
- Contributors
- Mark G Kuzyk (Advisor)Rick Lytel (Committee Member)Steve Tomsovic (Committee Member)Matthew McCluskey (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 204
- Identifiers
- 99900581848201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation