Metamaterials for Optical Waveguide Structure Sensors: Review

International Workshop on Microwave & Emerging Wireless Technologies

Keynote

Prof. Mohammad M Shabat

(Prof. Mohammad M. Shabat, Islamic University, Gaza, Palestinian Authority)

Abstract: Metamaterials (sometimes termed left-handed materials (LHMs)) are materials whose real parts of permittivity ? and permeability ? are both negative and consequently have negative index of refraction [1, 2]. These materials are artificial and theoretically discussed first by Veselago [1] about 50 years ago. The first realization of such materials, consisting of split-ring resenators (SRRs) and continuous wires, was first introduced by Pendry [3, 4].

One of the first applications of the left-handed materials was reported by Pendry [3], who demonstrated that a slab of a lossless left-handed material can provide a perfect image of a point source. A. Grbic et al [4] verified by a simulation the enhancement of evanescent waves in a transmission-line network by using a negative refractive index material. In [5], it was shown that Metamaterials, or left-handed materials can enhance the evanescent field strongly  in slab waveguides.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) also attracted intensive studies in the last decade due to their unique electromagnetic properties and possible applications. PhCs are novel class of optical media represented by natural or artificial structures with periodic modulation of the refractive index [6]. Optical waveguide sensors have been widely used for various application such as biochemical sensing, chemical sensing, humidity sensing, and biosensing. The effective refractive index of the propagating mode depends on the structure parameters, e.g., the guiding layer thickness and dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability of the media constituting the waveguide. So, any change in the refractive index of the covering medium leads to a change in the effective refractive index of the guiding mode. The sensing concept of the planer waveguide sensor is to determine the change in the effective refractive index of the covering medium [7-11].

In this communication, extensive theoretical and numerical analysis of various waveguide sensor structures and photonic crystal waveguide structure sensors are carried out. The waveguide sensor structures consist of a multilayer one-dimensional photonic crystal made of alternate right-handed and left-handed materials, which referring to as left-handed photonic crystal. The proposed photonic crystal structure has been investigated for sensing applications. The sensitivities are derived for various physical parameters, analyzed and discussed taking into account the negative refractive index of the photonic crystals. It has been found that the sensitivity is increasing due to the effects of Metamaterials or left-handed materials.

1. V. Veselago, “The electrodynamics of substance with simultaneously negative index values of ? and ?,” Sov. Phys. USP., Vol. 10, pp. 509-514, 1968.
2. R. A. Shelby, “Experimental verification of a negative index of refraction”, Science, 292, 77-79 , 2001
3. J. B. Pendry, “Negative refraction makes a perfect lens”, Phys. Rev Lett., 85,18, 3966-3969 2000
4. A. Grbic and G. V. Eleftheriades, “Growing evanescent waves in negative-refractive-index transmission-line media, ” J. Appl. Phys.,Vol. 92, pp. 5930-5933, 2002
5. D. K. Qing and G. Chen, “Enhancement of evanescent waves in waveguides using metamaterials of negative permittivity and permeability”, Appl. Phys. Lett., 21, 5, 669-671 2003
6. Igor A. Sukhoivanov and Igor V. Guryev, “Photonic Crystals, Physics and Practical Modeling, ” 1st edition, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2009.
7. S. Taya and M. Shabat, “Sensitivity enhancement in optical waveguide sensors using metamaterials,” Appl. A: Phys. Vol. 103, pp. 611-614, 2011.
8. S. Taya, M. Shabat, H. Khalil, and D. Jäger, “Theoretical Analysis of TM nonlinear asymmetrical waveguide optical sensors,” Sensors and Actuators, A: Phys. Vol. 147, pp. 137-141, 2008.
9. S.Taya and M.M.Shabat, “Sensitivity enhancement in optical waveguide sensors using metamateials”,  Appl.Phys A, vol.103, 611-614, 2011
10. S.A.Taya, T.M.El-Agez, H.M.Kullab, M.M.abadla, and M.M.Shabat, “Theoretical study of slab waveguide optical sensor with left handed materials as core layer”, Optica Applicata, Vol. XLII, no.1, 193-205, 2012
11. S.A. Taya, M.M. Abadla, M.M. Shabat, and E.J. El-Farram, “Evanescent Wave Sensors with a Left-Handed Material as a substrate”, Chinese J. Phys., Vol.50, no.3, pp.478-499, 2012

Biography

Mohammad M. Shabat, was born in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Palestine in 1960. He received his B.Sc. in Physics from Al-Aazhar University, Cairo, Egypt in 1984 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Salford, U.K., in 1990. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK, from 1989 to 1992. In April 1992, he joined the Physics Department at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) as an Assistant Professor of physics. He became an Associate Professor in 1996 and a Professor of Physics in 2000. In the period 2001-2005, he was the Vice President for Administrative Affairs at IUG, and Vice-President for Academic Affairs between 2009-2013. He was awarded the Shoman Prize for a Young Arab Scientist (Jordan) in 1995, and the Humboldt Research Fellowships in 1998-99 at the Center of Semiconductor Technology and Opto-electronics, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany.
He was a visiting scientist at Bochum University, Germany, in 1994; at the Institute National Polytechnic de Grenoble, (INPG), France, in 1995; at Salford University, U.K, in 1997; ICTP, Trieste, Italy, in 1996,1997 and 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004; and 207, 2013, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany, in1998, 1999 and 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006, 2007. From 2006-2008. Prof.Shabat was a visiting Professor in Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany. Professor Shabat has received “Galileo Galilei” Award of the International Commission of Optics (affiliated to ICSU and IUPAP) in 2006. Prof.Shabat had received ICPSR, ISSESCO Prize in Science and Technology, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), 2010. He is currently the Vice President for the Research and Graduate Studies at the IUG. Professor Shabat became the first Distinguished Professor in the IUG in 2011.
He published more than 240 papers in international journals in Material Science, Optical Science, physics, mathematics and education and presented many papers at local and international conferences. His research interests include newly artificial materials called Metamaterials or Left-handed materials, Nanomaterials, Super-lattices, Nonlinear optical sensor, opto-electronics, magnetostatic surface waves, numerical techniques, mesoscopic systems, energy, applied mathematics, Nanotechnology and physics education.
He supervised more than 20 postgraduate students (M.Sc and PhD) in mathematics and physics. Recently he has established a Palestinian Optical Society (POS). He is an external examiner for BSc examinations, Msc dissertation and PhD theses in physics and mathematics at Palestinian and Egyptian universities. Prof. Shabat is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing Countries (TWAS) elected in 2004, member of the Selection Committee for the ICO Galileo Galilei Award, 2008-2011, member of the Selection Committee for the Shoman Prize for the Arab Youth Scientist, 2006, a Senior member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer)in 2003, a member of the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transaction on Magnetics from 1996-7, a Senior Member of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, a Fellow of Palestinian Academy of Sciences, a member of the Steering Committee of World Renewable Energy Congress and world Renewable Energy Networks, U.K.