Non-crystalline materials having complete photonic, electronic, or phononic band gaps

摘要

The invention provides an article of manufacture, and methods of designing and making the article. The article permits or prohibits waves of energy, especially photonic/electromagnetic energy, to propagate through it, depending on the energy band gaps built into it. The structure of the article may be reduced to a pattern of points having a hyperuniform distribution. The point-pattern may exhibit a crystalline symmetry, a quasicrystalline symmetry or may be aperiodic. In some embodiments, the point pattern exhibits no long-range order. Preferably, the point-pattern is isotropic. In all embodiments, the article has a complete, TE- and TM-optimized band-gap. The extraordinary transmission phenomena found in the disordered hyperuniform photonic structures of the invention find use in optical micro-circuitry (all-optical, electronic or thermal switching of the transmission), near-field optical probing, thermophotovoltaics, and energy-efficient incandescent sources.

主权项

1. An article of manufacture comprising a non-crystalline heterostructure, said heterostructure comprising a plurality of disordered material-elements disposed hyperuniformly therein, without periodic or quasiperiodic translational order, in a condensed or solid state, said non-crystalline heterostructure being rotationally isotropic and having a complete band gap.