Nature-Inspired Optimization of Quasicrystalline Arrays and All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamaterials

The Pennsylvania State University
The Graduate School

Department of Electrical Engineering
NATURE-INSPIRED OPTIMIZATION OF QUASICRYSTALLINE
ARRAYS AND ALL-DIELECTRIC OPTICAL FILTERS AND
METAMATERIALS
A Dissertation in
Electrical Engineering
by
Frank (Farhad) A. Namin
c _ 2012 Frank (Farhad) A. Namin
Submitted in Partial Fulllment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
December 2012
The dissertation of Frank (Farhad) A. Namin was reviewed and approved
by the
following:
Douglas H. Werner
Professor of Electrical Engineering
Dissertation Advisor, Chair of Committee
Pingjuan L. Werner
Julio Urbina
Brian Weiner
Professor of Physics
Kultegin Aydin
Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering
Signatures are on le in the Graduate School.

Abstract
Quasicrystalline solids were rst observed in nature in 1980s. Their lattice geom-
etry is devoid of translational symmetry; however it possesses long-range order as
well as certain orders of rotational symmetry forbidden by translational symmetry.
Mathematically, such lattices are related to aperiodic tilings. Since their discovery
there has been great interest in utilizing aperiodic geometries for a wide variety
of electromagnetic (EM) and optical applications. The rst thrust of this disser-
tation addresses applications of quasicrystalline geometries for wideband antenna
arrays and plasmonic nano-spherical arrays. The rst application considered is
the design of suitable antenna arrays for micro-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)
swarms based on perturbation of certain types of aperiodic tilings. Due to safety
reasons and to avoid possible collision between micro-UAVs it is desirable to keep
the minimum separation distance between the elements several wavelengths. As
a result typical periodic planar arrays are not suitable, since for periodic arrays
increasing the minimum element spacing beyond one wavelength will lead to the
appearance of grating lobes in the radiation pattern. It will be shown that using
this method antenna arrays with very wide bandwidths and low sidelobe levels can
be designed. It will also be shown that in conjunction with a phase compensation
method these arrays show a large degree of versatility to positional noise. Next
aperiodic aggregates of gold nano-spheres are studied. Since traditional unit cell
approaches cannot be used for aperiodic geometries, we start be developing new
analytical tools for aperiodic arrays. A modied version of generalized Mie theory
(GMT) is developed which denes scattering coecients for aperiodic spherical
arrays. Next two specic properties of quasicrystalline gold nano-spherical arrays
are considered. The optical response of these arrays can be explained in terms of
the grating response of the array (photonic resonance) and the plasmonic response
of the spheres (plasmonic resonance). In particular the couplings between the pho-
tonic and plasmonic modes are studied. In periodic arrays this coupling leads to
iii
the formation of a so called photonic-plasmonic hybrid mode. The formation of
hybrid modes is studied in quasicrystalline arrays. Quasicrystalline structures in
essence possess several periodicities which in some cases can lead to the forma-
tion of multiple hybrid modes with wider bandwidths. It is also demonstrated
that the performance of these arrays can be further enhanced by employing a per-
turbation method. The second property considered is local eld enhancements
in quasicrystalline arrays of gold nanospheres. It will be shown that despite a
considerably smaller lling factor quasicrystalline arrays generate larger local eld
enhancements which can be even further enhanced by optimally placing perturbing
spheres within the prototiles that comprise the aperiodic arrays.
The second thrust of research in this dissertation focuses on designing all-
dielectric lters and metamaterial coatings for the optical range. In higher fre-
quencies metals tend to have a high loss and thus they are not suitable for many
applications. Hence dielectrics are used for applications in optical frequencies. In
particular we focus on designing two types of structures. First a near-perfect opti-
cal mirror is designed. The design is based on optimizing a subwavelength periodic
dielectric grating to obtain appropriate eective parameters that will satisfy the
desired perfect mirror condition. Second, a broadband anti-reective all-dielectric
grating with wide eld of view is designed. The second design is based on a
new computationally ecient genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method which
shapes the sidewalls of the grating based on optimizing the roots of polynomial
functions.
iv
Table of Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Tables xiii
Acknowledgments xiv
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Quasicrystalline Plasmonic Nanoparticle Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamaterials . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Original Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.1 Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna Arrays . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Quasicrystalline Plasmonic Nanoparticle Arrays . . . . . . . 6
1.4.3 All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamaterials . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2
Tilings, Crystals, and Quasicrystals 9
2.1 Periodic Tilings and Point Lattices and Symmetries . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Aperiodic Tilings and Quasicrystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 Penrose Aperiodic Tiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.2 Danzer Aperiodic Tiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.3 Ammann-Beenker Aperiodic Tiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Higher-Dimensional Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 3
Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna Arrays 22
v
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 Planar Antenna Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.1 Periodic Antenna Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.2 Aperiodic Antenna Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Optimization of Aperiodic Tiling Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.4 Positional Noise Analysis and Error Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.5 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5.1 Periodic Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5.2 Optimized Aperiodic Array: Broadside . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 4
Generalized Scattering Coecients for Finite-Sized Spherical
Arrays 49
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 GMT with Incident Plane Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 GMT Based on Finite Beamwidth Incident Wave . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4 Generalized Scattering Coecients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.5 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter 5
Optimizations of Quasicrystalline Nanoparticle Arrays 67
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2 Resonance Response in Periodic Gold Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.1 Plasmonic Resonance of Gold Spheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.2 Photonic Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.2.3 Hybrid Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.3 Resonance Response in Quasicrystalline Gold Arrays . . . . . . . . 73
5.3.1 Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.4 Local Field Enhancements in Quasicrystalline Gold Arrays . . . . . 82
Chapter 6
Optical Mirrors Based on Metamaterial Coatings 88
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.2 Eective Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.3 Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.4 Fabrication and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
vi
Chapter 7
Transmission Gratings Based on Ecient Optimization of Poly-
nomials 102
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.2 Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Appendix A
Genetic Algorithms 110
A.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A.2 Binary Genetic Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A.2.1 Initial Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
A.2.2 Mating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
A.2.3 Mutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
A.2.4 Stopping Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Appendix B
Derivation for
n
(ka) and
n
(ka) 114
Appendix C
Derivation for
n
(ka) 118
Appendix D
Derivation for s
+1,
(z) 120
Bibliography 122
vii
List of Figures
2.1 An example of a periodic tilings of 2D plane with two prototiles A
and B. Two sets of basis vectors are shown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 A periodic point lattice (left) and its Fourier diraction pattern
(right). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 A random set of points (left) and its Fourier diraction pattern
(right). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 A set of points generated from the Penrose tiling (left) and the
corresponding Fourier diraction pattern (right). . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Penrose aperiodic tiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.6 Prototiles of the Penrose tiling ( = /5 and =
1+
5
2
). . . . . . . . 17
2.7 Iterative ination and substitution of Penrose prototiles. . . . . . . 17
2.8 Prototiles of the Danzer aperiodic tiling ( = /7). . . . . . . . . . 18
2.9 Two iterations of ination and substitution applied to Danzer pro-
totile type III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.10 Two iterations of ination and substitution applied to square pro-
totile of A-B tiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.11 Prototiles of the A-B tiling and their relative dimensions. . . . . . . 19
2.12 Higher-dimensional approach demonstrated to obtain a Fibonacci
sequence as a projection of J
2
p
onto an irrational subspace. . . . . . 21
3.1 Radiation pattern of a periodic array of 441 isotropic radiators with
main beam steered toward broadside and operating wavelength =
2d
min
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 Radiation pattern of a periodic array of 441 isotropic radiators with
d
min
2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.4 Geometry of an aperiodic array of 659 elements generated from a
Danzer tiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
viii
3.5 Radiation pattern of an aperiodic Danzer array of 659 isotropic
radiators with main beam steered toward broadside and operating
wavelength = 2d
min
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.6 Radiation pattern of an aperiodic Danzer array of 659 isotropic
radiators with main beam steered toward broadside and operating
wavelength =
d
min
2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.7 Geometry of optimized Danzer array (267 elements) for maximum
sidelobe suppression at f = 4f
0
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.8 Three optimized Danzer prototiles with additional perturbation el-
ements used to generate the antenna array in Figure 3.7. . . . . . . 32
3.9 A segment of the Danzer tiling generated with the perturbed pro-
totiles shown in Figure 3.8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.10 Sidelobe level performance of the Danzer array optimized for side-
lobe suppression at f = 4f
0
. The performances of a uniform peri-
odic array as well as a base Danzer array are also shown for com-
parison. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.11 The ideal radiation pattern for the 267 element aperiodic tiling
array shown in in Figure 3.7 at operating wavelength =
d
min
2
. . . . 34
3.12 Three optimized Danzer prototiles with additional perturbation el-
ements used to generate the antenna array in Figure 3.13. . . . . . 35
3.13 Geometry of optimized Danzer array (505 elements) for maximum
side-lobe suppression at f = 30f
0
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.14 Side-lobe level performance of the Danzer array optimized for side-
0
. The performances of a uniform
periodic array as well as a base Danzer array are also shown for
comparison. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.15 Normalized array factor for the optimized Danzer array with 505
elements at f = 30f
0
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.16 Geometry of a micro-UAV formation. In this illustration, r
n
repre-
sents the nominal position of aircraft n, r
n
represents the error due
to turbulence, and n is the unit vector pointing in the direction of
the far-eld observation point at (, ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.17 Eect of the phase correction factor in the direction of the main-
beam. In this example, the mainbeam of the radiation pattern is
pointed in the direction n
0
= z. The phase correction term
cn
is used to ensure the phase of the signal from aircraft n is equal to
zero at z = 0. This process is repeated for each aircraft, ensuring a
beam can be resolved in the n
0
direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.18 Illustration of angle , the angle between the observation direction,
n and the boresight of the array, n
0
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
ix
3.19 The ideal radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based on a 1793
element periodic array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.20 The corrupted radiation pattern of a 1793 element periodic micro-
UAV swarm. The swarm is corrupted by a Gaussian positional
noise with = 0.1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.21 The phase corrected radiation pattern of a 1793 element periodic
micro-UAV swarm. The swarm is corrupted by a Gaussian posi-
tional noise with = 0.1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.22 The eects of Gaussian noise with = 0.1 on the optimized array.
The intensity of gray in circles around the elements corresponds to
the probability of the element being in that region. . . . . . . . . . 46
3.23 The corrupted radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based on
the 267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The
swarm is corrupted by a Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1. . 47
3.24 The phase corrected radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based
on the 267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The
3.25 The phase corrected radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based
on the 267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The
radiation pattern is steered to an angle = 45
, = 45
and the
4.1 [E
[ (left) and [E
[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

aperture evaluated using the analytical expressions from Eq. (4.19). 60
4.2 [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using a four term VSWF expansion. . . . . . . . 60
4.3 [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using a six term VSWF expansion. . . . . . . . . 61
4.4 [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using an eight term VSWF expansion. . . . . . . 61
4.5 Geometry of an aperiodic Ammann-Beenker tiling. . . . . . . . . . 62
4.6 Normalized scattered eld magnitude (dB) in the plane of the AB
aperiodic array illuminated by a plane wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.7 Normalized scattered eld magnitude (dB) in the plane of the AB
aperiodic array illuminated by circular aperture diracted waves. . . 64
4.8 Scattering response of innite (solid lines) and nite (dashed lines)
periodic gold arrays obtained by CST MICROWAVE STUDIO and
GMT with a nite beamwidth calculated using Eq. (4.41) and
Eq. (4.44). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
x
5.1 Real and imaginary parts of the gold dielectric function according
to Eq. (5.10). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.2 Extinction eciency of a gold sphere with a radius of 20 nm in a
dielectric medium with an index of refraction of n
M
= 1.5. . . . . . 71
5.3 Extinction eciency of a periodic array of 121 dielectric spheres
(n
p
= 3) of radius 50 nm and periodicity of = 550 nm with a
normally incident plane wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.4 Extinction eciency of a periodic array of 100 gold spheres of radius
80 nm and periodicity of = 600 nm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.5 Extinction eciency for four periodic arrays of 100 gold spheres of
radius 80 nm with periodicities of 400 nm, 500 nm, 600 nm. . . . . 74
5.6 Narrow (vertex angles /5 and 4/5) and wide (vertex angles 2/5
and 3/5) rhombi prototiles of Penrose tiling. The three marked
distances which are the large diagonal of the narrow rhombus (d
1
),
the large diagonal of the wide rhombus (d
2
) and d
3
which denotes
the side of both rhombi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.7 A segment of the Penrose quasicrystals composed of the narrow and
wide rhombi and the corresponding distances d
1
, d
2
, and d
3
from
Figure 5.6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.8 Diraction pattern of Penrose quasicrystal with the rst three re-
ciprocal vectors displayed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.9 Scattering response of two nite aperiodic Penrose gold arrays with
dierent tile sides (540 nm, 630 nm) obtained using GMT with a
nite incident beamwidth produced by a circular aperture of radius
a = 2 placed at a distance of 17 m from the array. Values of T
and R were calculated from Eq. (4.41) and Eq. (4.44) respectively. . 78
5.11 Danzer tiling generated after two iteration applied to prototile type
III with elements placed at vertices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.12 Extinction eciency for three Danzer of 349 gold spheres of radius
80 nm with c/2 values of 420 nm, 480 nm, 560 nm. The plasmonic
region of gold is highlighted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.13 A segment of an optimized Danzer tiling with additional elements
placed at the circumcenter of type III prototile. . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.14 Extinction eciency for native Danzer array (349 spheres) and the
optimized Danzer array (521 spheres). Both arrays have been scaled
such that
c
2
= 560 nm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.15 Extinction coecient (E = 1 T) for native Danzer and the op-
timized Danzer arrays evaluated using GMT method with a nite
beamwidth. Both arrays have been scaled such that
c
2
= 560 nm. . . 83
xi
5.16 Local elds (V/m) for a periodic array of 225 gold nanospheres with
minimum surface to surface distance of 20 nm. . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.17 Local elds (V/m) for a Penrose array of 251 gold nanospheres with
5.18 Local elds (V/m) for a Danzer array of 248 gold nanospheres with
5.19 Local elds (V/m) for an A-B array of 225 gold nanospheres with
6.1 The unit cell structure of the optimized metamaterial grating with
p = 2.05 m and t = 468 nm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.2 Simulated reection and transmission coecients of the optimized
metamaterial structure in free space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.3 Eective index of refraction for the optimized metamaterial mirror. 95
6.4 Eective normalized impedance for the optimized metamaterial mir-
ror. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.5 Eective permittivity for the optimized metamaterial mirror. . . . . 96
6.6 Eective permeability for the optimized metamaterial mirror. . . . . 97
6.7 Electric eld distributions for the optimized structure at resonance
(
0
= 3.3 m) in the xy-plane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.8 Electric eld distributions for the optimized structure at resonance
(
0
= 3.3 m) in the yz-plane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.9 FESEM image of the fabricated metamaterial mirror with an inset
of a magnied unit cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.10 Simulated and measured transmission and reection spectra of 4
4 mm
2
sample. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.1 A fourth degree polynomial with roots in [0, 1]. . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.2 Resulting side-wall prole from the polynomial in Figure 7.1. . . . . 105
7.3 Relative permittivity of ZnS over the visible range. . . . . . . . . . 107
7.4 Unit cell of the optimized grating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.5 Four periods of the optimized grating structure. . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.6 Transmittance values for the optimized grating corresponding to
dierent values of incident TM radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
A.1 Flowchart of a typical GA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A.2 The mating process for two parents to produce two ospring. . . . . 112
xii
List of Tables
5.1 Geometrical properties of nano-spherical arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . 84
7.1 Mean transmittance values for dierent incidence angles over the
visible band. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
xiii
Acknowledgments
First and foremost I would like to give my deepest and most sincere gratitude to
my parents and my dear brother, to whom this thesis is dedicated. Without their
love, support, and encouragement this would not have been possible.
I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Douglas Werner, for his
support and commitment. His guidance and technical advice were instrumental in
the development of my research and this dissertation. I would also like to express
my appreciation to Dr. Pingjuan Werner both as a member of my committee and
for her helpful assistance with many lab related issues.
I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Pingjuan Werner,
Dr. Julio Urbina, and Dr. Brian Weiner, for their time and eort.
I would like to thank the members of my lab that have come and gone through-
out the duration of my time at Penn State. Their friendship and assistance have
made my experience in graduate school a pleasurable one.
I would like to thank my dear friends Abteen Vaziri, Dario Ferdows and Sanjeev
Iyengar for their great friendship and support.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Applied Research Lab for their generous
nancial support throughout the duration of my time at Penn State.
xiv
Dedication
To Behnam, Farzaneh, and Amir
xv
Chapter 1
Introduction
In 1982 while studying rapidly solidied aluminum (Al) alloys at Johns Hopkins
University, Dr. Dan Shechtman noticed that the electron diraction pattern of cer-
tain Al and manganese (Mn) alloys displayed 10-fold rotational symmetry which
corresponded to 5-fold rotational symmetry of the alloy. He published his results
in 1984 [1] which at the time was highly controversial and was met with great
resistance in the academic community. The reason was that it was mathematically
impossible for a periodic lattice to possess 5-fold rotational symmetry and at the
time it was assumed that all crystals possessed translational symmetry (periodic-
ity). In the following years his results were reconrmed by other groups and new
observations of such solids were made. In time such materials which possessed
order (dened in terms of diraction pattern) but lacked translational symme-
try (aperiodic) came to be known as quasicrystals. In 2011 Dr. Shechtman was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of quasicrystals.
Since their discovery there has been great interest in utilizing quasicrystalline
geometries for a wide variety of electromagnetic (EM) and optical applications
such as ultra-wideband antenna arrays [2], surface-enhanced Raman scattering
(SERS) substrates [3], and electronic band gap materials [4]. The rst thrust of
research contained in this dissertation presents applications of aperiodic geometries
in wideband antenna arrays and plasmonic nanoparticle arrays. It will be shown
that novel properties of quasicrystalline arrays gives them unique properties that
cannot be obtained using periodic geometries. Additionally we will utilize nature-
inspired optimization algorithms in order to further enhance the desired properties
2
of these arrays.
The second thrust of research in this dissertation focuses on designing all-
dielectric lters and metamaterial coatings for the optical range. In higher fre-
quencies metals tend to have a high loss and thus they are not suitable for many
applications. Hence dielectrics are used for applications in optical frequencies. In
particular we focus on designing two types of structures. First a near-perfect opti-
cal mirror is designed. The design is based on optimizing a subwavelength periodic
dielectric grating to obtain appropriate eective parameters that will satisfy the
desired perfect mirror condition. Second, a broadband anti-reective all-dielectric
grating with wide eld of view is designed. The second design is based on a
new computationally ecient genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method which
shapes the sidewalls of the grating based on optimizing the roots of polynomial
functions.
1.1 Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna Arrays
Recent development and advancements of micro-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)
swarms have brought a lot of attention to their potential uses for remote sensing
and intelligent gathering applications. They can be used in military applications in
hazardous circumstances such as monitoring for nuclear or chemical contamination.
There are also various civilian applications for these swarms such as environmental
monitoring and pollution control. One of the major challenges is designing suitable
arrays for micro-UAV swarms. Due to safety reasons and to avoid possible collision
between micro-UAVs it is desirable to keep the minimum separation distance be-
tween the elements several wavelengths. As a result typical periodic planar arrays
are not suitable, since for periodic arrays increasing the minimum element spacing
beyond one wavelength will lead to the appearance of grating lobes in the radia-
tion pattern. The research in this dissertation focuses on design optimization of
suitable antenna arrays for these swarms based on perturbation of certain types of
aperiodic tilings. It will be shown that using this method antenna arrays with very
wide bandwidths and low sidelobe levels can be designed. It will also be shown
that in conjunction with a phase compensation method these arrays show a large
degree of versatility to positional noise.
3
1.2 Quasicrystalline Plasmonic Nanoparticle Ar-
rays
Gold and silver nanoparticle arrays have attracted immense attention due to their
optical properties in the visible and infrared (IR) regions. It has been demonstrated
that such metallic nanoparticles with sub-wavelength dimensions display strong
optical extinction in the visible or IR spectrum. This resonant behavior is known
as the particle plasmon [5]. This plasmonic resonance makes metal nanoparticle
arrays great candidates for wide variety of applications such as SERS substrates
and biosensors. The optical properties of these arrays can be explained in terms of
the grating response of the array (photonic resonance) and the plasmonic response
of the spheres (plasmonic resonance). The photonic resonances can be analyzed as
the Bragg grating modes, which are due to the coherent scattering experienced as
the wavelength of the incident radiation approaches the periodicity of the array. Of
particular interest are the phenomena that occur when the photonic and plasmonic
resonances are in close proximity. This allows for the plasmonic elds to radiate
in the plane of the array, which leads to stronger coupling and further resonance
enhancement. Subsequently, a so-called photonic-plasmonic hybrid mode is excited
[6].
In periodic structures these hybrid modes usually have a narrow bandwidth due
to the inherently narrowband nature of the photonic resonance. On the contrary,
hybrid modes in aperiodic structures can have more desirable properties because
they possess multiple periodicities that if designed properly can create hybrid mode
coupling over a relatively wide bandwidth.
A key challenge in evaluating the EM properties of aperiodic geometries is the
lack of analytical tools. Traditionally the EM properties of metamaterials and
photonic crystals have been evaluated by exploiting their translational symmetry
(periodicity). This approach signicantly simplies the analysis by applying ap-
propriate boundary conditions and only requiring Maxwells equations to be solved
for one unit cell, rather than the entire structure. However, quasicrystals gener-
ally lack translational symmetry. One particular approach that can be applied to
large aggregates of randomly sized spheres in a dielectric medium is the General-
ized Multiparticle Mie Theory (GMT) developed by Xu [7].The solution obtained
4
by GMT is a complete solution, based on rigorous analytical expressions which
account for all couplings and multi-particle interactions. This is particularly im-
portant when studying metal particles in their plasmonic resonance regions where
many approximate methods (e.g. discrete dipole approximation method) tend to
produce relatively inaccurate calculations. Furthermore, the GMT solution also
includes near-eld results which make it suitable for studying phenomena such
as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Traditionally the GMT method is
applied based on an incident plane wave excitation. However since a plane wave
has an innite beamwidth, then it is not possible to dene reection and trans-
mission coecients in the usual sense when considering the analysis of nite-size
(truncated) arrays via the GMT method. Obtaining reection and transmission
coecients are also necessary if one is interested in extracting eective medium
parameters for subwavelength arrays. To overcome this issue, we implemented
GMT based an in incident beam with nite beamwidth. This was done by emu-
lating conditions similar to experimental setup where a narrow incident beam is
created by placing a circular aperture in front of an illuminating plane wave. The
rst step in this process was the expansion of diracted waves in terms of spher-
ical harmonics. We were able to derive analytical expressions for the diracted
elds. Expansion of diracted elds in terms of spherical harmonics also led to
new analytical expressions for two important integrals involving Bessel, associated
Legendre and trigonometric functions which arise in electromagnetic diraction
problems. This approach allowed for dening generalized scattering coecients in
terms of far-eld energy uxes.
We also study local eld enhancements in aperiodic arrays of gold nano-spheres.
It will be shown that despite the fact that aperiodic arrays are much sparser than
periodic arrays, they display larger local eld enhancements. Local elds can be
further enhanced by optimally placing perturbing spheres within the prototiles
that comprise the aperiodic arrays.
5
1.3 All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamate-
rials
In recent years there has been considerable interest in the ltering properties of
subwavelength periodic dielectric gratings [8, 9, 10]. At infrared (IR) wavelengths
dielectric gratings have been shown to be superior to traditional metallic frequency
selective surfaces due primarily to their low absorption loss. If the periodicity is
extended to two dimensions and rotational symmetry is applied to the structure the
response will be identical for normal incident plane waves for both polarizations
(TE and TM). Traditionally these structures have been studied using rigorous
coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) [11] method which treats the periodic layers as
waveguides and the appropriate boundary conditions are imposed. The resulting
eigenvalue problem is then solved to nd all the modes that can be supported by
the periodic structure. If the incident wave can excite one of the modes supported
by the grating, it can lead to resonant reection or transmission [12]. For our
rst design our goal is to design a lter with a near-perfect reection band (i.e. a
near-perfect optical mirror) centered at the mid-IR band of 3.3 m . We treat the
doubly periodic gratings as metamaterial structures and apply eective medium
theory to guide the design process. The appropriate optical properties that will
satisfy the desired perfect mirror condition are rst derived. The structure of the
metamaterial grating is optimized using a single point cross-over binary GA. The
scattering parameters of the structures are evaluated using a periodic nite-element
boundary-integral (PFEBI) code. The scattering parameters are then employed to
derive the eective parameters using a suitable inversion algorithm. The goal for
the second all-dielectric lter design is a broadband anti-reective grating with wide
eld of view. We propose a computationally ecient GA optimization strategy
based on optimizing the roots of a polynomial. This method has the advantage
of having a relatively small number of variables to be optimized and at the same
time allows for more complex side-wall proles.
6
1.4 Original Contributions
1.4.1 Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna Arrays
The research conducted in implementation and optimization of quasicrystalline
geometries for ultra-wideband antenna application has led to original contributions
in several areas including the
Development of a new modied dynamic method for perturbing aperiodic
tiling arrays which can substantially increase their bandwidth.
Development of volumetric aperiodic antenna arrays based on aperiodic tiling
of the 3D space. The same perturbation methods that were utilized for
planar aperiodic arrays can be used to enhance the radiation properties of
these volumetric arrays.
Design and optimization of ultra-wideband antenna array for micro-UAV
swarms based on perturbation of aperiodic tilings. It was shown that along
with a phase compensation method, these arrays show a large degree of
robustness to positional noise.
Some of the developments of this research have been published in the IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation [13].
1.4.2 Quasicrystalline Plasmonic Nanoparticle Arrays
The research conducted in the analysis and optimization of quasicrystalline plas-
monic nanoparticle arrays required a new implantation of GMT which led to orig-
inal contributions in several areas including the
New closed form expressions for elds diracted by a circular aperture in
terms of vector spherical wave functions (VSWF).
New closed form expression for two denite integrals which can be of great
interest on vector diraction problems.
Generalized scattering coecients dened for nite-sized spherical arrays.
7
New optimization methods for aperiodic tilings for plasmonic nanoparticle
applications.
1.4.3 All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamaterials
The research conducted in design and optimization of all-dielectric optical lters
and metamaterials led to original contributions in several areas including the
Derivation of a new set of eective parameters for a perfect mirror dielectric
slab with zero index of refraction.
Design and optimization of an all-dielectric zero-index metamaterial layer.
The design was subsequently fabricated and the measured results were in
great agreement with the simulated results.
Introduction of a new computationally ecient method to create sidewall
proles for dielectric gratings based on optimizing the roots of polynomial
functions.
Designed a broadband transmission grating with wide eld of view using the
polynomial sidewall prole method mentioned above.
1.5 Overview
This section provides a brief overview of the material discussed in the remainder
of this dissertation. Since a large portion of this dissertation deals with quasicrys-
talline arrays, we dedicated Chapter 2 to provide a brief introduction and overview
of some basic concepts relating to crystals, tilings, and quasicrystals. Chapter 3
examines the applications of aperiodic tilings in wideband antenna designs. Chap-
ter 4 introduces the GMT method and includes the derivation required for imple-
mentation of the GMT method with a nite beamwidth incident eld. Chapter 5
includes several examples of applications of metallic nanoparticle arrays based on
aperiodic geometries and methods to further enhance their properties. Chapter 6
considers the optimization of metamaterial coatings using nature-inspired algo-
rithms which includes one optimized design which was subsequently fabricated
8
and characterized. Chapter 7 introduces a new ecient methodology to design
transmission gratings based on the optimization of polynomial functions.
Chapter 2
Tilings, Crystals, and Quasicrystals
In this chapter we provide some basic background regarding quasicrystals and how
they relate to aperiodic tilings. A rigorous and fundamental study of quasicrys-
tals is quite complicated and requires a deep understanding and application of
group theory [14]. However quasicrystals can also be arrived at using aperiodic
tilings which is less mathematically involved and still provides a sucient intuitive
understanding of the subject.
2.1 Periodic Tilings and Point Lattices and Sym-
metries
A tiling T in an n-dimensional Euclidean space E
n
is a partition of that space into
a countable, non-intersecting number of tiles. Using mathematical notation, T is
a set of tiles T
1
, T
2
, . . . such that [14]:
i ,= j int T
i
int T
j
=
_
i=1
= E
n
(2.1)
where int T denotes the interior of T. In general there are no limitations on the
shapes of tiles and a tiling can be completely random. However, we limit our
attention to those tilings whose tiles are copies of a nite set of shapes. The
elements of this nite set are known as prototiles. A most basic example would be
10
covering the 2D plane by identical squares. The prototile set of such tiling consists
of a single square. Another example would be to cover the 2D plane by black and
while squares in a chessboard pattern. In this case the tiling is dened by two
prototiles: one black square and one white square with identical sides.
The periodicity of a tiling T of E
n
can be established by determining n linearly
independent vectors

b
1
, . . . ,
b
n
such that the translation / = m
1
b
1
+ . . . + m
n
b
n
where m
1
, . . . , m
n
are integers will map T onto itself. Since the translation /
maps the tiling onto itself, a periodic tiling is said to have translational symmetry.
A set of vectors

b
1
, . . . ,
b
n
will form a basis set for T . It is also important to note
that the set of basis vectors are not unique. Figure 2.1 shows a periodic tiling
with two prototiles and two sets of basis vectors. Lattices are closely related to
tilings. Once a tiling is known a corresponding lattice can be generated, simply by
placing points at the vertices of each tile. Lattices resulting from periodic tilings
are known as point lattices and denoted by /
p
.
Figure 2.1: An example of a periodic tilings of 2D plane with two prototiles A and
B. Two sets of basis vectors are shown.
Order and symmetry in solids can be deduced from their diraction pat-
terns. Mathematically there is a close relationship between diraction patterns
11
and Fourier transform. Dirac delta function [15] introduces a convenient way to
represent a set of scatterers as a summation of innitesimal points. We start by
considering =
_
d
1
,

d
2
, . . .
_
as a discrete set of points in E
n
where

d
k
is an
n-dimensional vector representing the location of the k-th point in . We can
represent our set as the following summation of Dirac delta functions[14]
(x) =
d
k
(x

d
k
) (2.2)
where (x a) is the Dirac delta function with the following properties [15]:
(x a) =
_
_
_
0 if x ,=a
if x =a
(2.3)
_
xE
n
(x a)dx = 1 (2.4)
The Fourier transform of a function f(x) , x R
n
is denoted by

f(s) and dened
by the following integral:
f(s) =
_
R
n
f(x) exp (2ix s) dx (2.5)
It is simple to show that the Fourier integral represents a linear operation. Hence
we can denote it by T and write an equivalent form for Eq. (2.5) as
T(f) =

f

f(s) =
_
R
n
f(x) exp (2ix s) dx (2.6)
Using the integral in Eq. (2.5) it can be shown that T((xa)) = exp(2ias) and
from the linearity of T it can be shown that the set of points dened in Eq. (2.2)
has the following Fourier transform

(s) = T
_
_
d
k
(x

d
k
)
_
_
=
d
k
exp
_
2i
d
k
s
_
(2.7)
The Fourier diraction pattern is dened as the real-valued function J(s) = [
(s)[.
Fourier diraction pattern is a very useful tool in studying order and symmetry
12
of point sets. At the most fundamental level, a crystal is dened as a solid with a
discrete diraction diagram. Figure 2.2 shows a periodic set of points (left) and the
corresponding Fourier diraction pattern (right) calculated according to Eq. (2.7).
As it can be seen, the diraction pattern displays discrete peaks which as dened,
correspond to a crystalline structure. Figure 2.3 shows a random set of points (left)
and the corresponding Fourier diraction pattern (right). As it can be seen the
diraction pattern is relatively at and does not contain any discrete peaks (the
peak at the origin can be ignored since it would exist for any planar formation).
The diraction pattern contains all the symmetry information of a given point set.
In fact when speaking of symmetry of a crystal, we are referring to the symmetry
implied by the diraction pattern.
So far we have discussed the translation symmetry of the periodic point lattices.
A translation of a point lattice by any integer linear combination of its basis vectors
will map the lattice onto itself. Rotational symmetry is another symmetry which
is studied in crystals. It is trivial to verify that rotating a planar lattice by 2/4
will map the lattice onto itself. Hence a planar point lattice is said to possess a 4-
fold rotational symmetry. Rotational symmetry is also displayed in the diraction
pattern. For example the diraction pattern shown in Figure 2.2 displays a 4-
fold rotational symmetry which corresponds to a point lattice. In fact rotational
symmetries are described in terms of the diraction patterns rather than actual
point sets. Thus if the diraction pattern of a point set is unchanged by a 2/n
rotation, the point set is said to possess n-fold rotational symmetry. Here we note
an important theorem regarding periodic lattices in two-dimensional and three
dimensional spaces (a proof can be found in [14]):
The crystallographic restriction theorem: Rotational symmetries of order ve
and those greater than six are impossible in periodic lattices in two-dimensional
and three dimensional spaces [14].
Figure 2.4 shows a set of points (left) and its corresponding diraction pat-
tern. As it can be seen the diraction pattern displays a discrete pattern, thus
it can be classied as a crystal. Also upon closer inspection it can be seen that
the diraction pattern displays a 10-fold rotational symmetry hence it cannot be
periodic (crystallographic restriction theorem). The geometry shown in Figure 2.4
is generated from a Penrose tiling of the plane which is a member of aperiodic
13
Figure 2.2: A periodic point lattice (left) and its Fourier diraction pattern (right).
tilings which we introduce in the next section.
2.2 Aperiodic Tilings and Quasicrystals
In the previous section, a set of necessary and sucient conditions were stated
to establish periodicity in a given tiling. Basically to demonstrate periodicity in
n-dimensional space, we had to determine a set of n linearly independent basis
vectors, such that a translation of the tiling by an integer linear combination of
the basis vectors did not change the tiling. If such a set of basis vectors does not
exist, a tiling is said to be aperiodic.
There are several well-known examples of linear aperiodic tilings. Fibonacci
sequence is an example of a linear aperiodic tiling. The prototile set of the tiling
consists of two elements which we denote as L, S. The sequence can be generated
starting with one of the elements and iteratively applying the substitution rule
14
Figure 2.3: A random set of points (left) and its Fourier diraction pattern (right).
L LS , S L [16].
L LS LSL LSLLS LSLLSLSL . . . (2.8)
Historically it was always assumed that all crystals possess translational sym-
metry. When in 1984 Dan Shechtman published his results of observing a dirac-
tion pattern with ten-fold rotational symmetry [1], he was met with great resistance
and skepticism in the academic community. According to the crystallographic
restriction theorem ten-fold rotational symmetry was impossible for a periodic
structure, and at the time the prevailing assumption was that crystals always have
translational symmetry. Eventually his ndings were conrmed and this new class
of solids which lacked translational symmetry but possessed an order of rotational
symmetry forbidden by the crystallographic restriction theorem came to be known
as quasicrystals. In 2011 Dr. Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chem-
istry for the discovery of quasicrystals.
Mathematicians established the theoretical foundations for quasicrystals before
15
Figure 2.4: A set of points generated from the Penrose tiling (left) and the corre-
sponding Fourier diraction pattern (right).
their actual discovery in nature as aperiodic tilings of the plane starting in 1960s.
Probably the best known aperiodic tiling is the Penrose tiling discovered by Sir
Roger Penrose in 1974 [17]. Figure 2.5 shows the pattern of the Penrose tiling
which is built from two triangle prototiles and has a 5-fold rotational symmetry.
From the set of prototiles, there are several ways to generate the tiling. The
most intuitive procedure is to place tiles next to each other according to specic
matching rules, which are meant to preserve the aperiodicity of the tiling. A more
systematic approach which lends itself better to programming is the use of an
iterative ination and substitution process. Using this approach we can start with
a certain prototile and at each step it is inated and lled with other prototiles
according to specic substitution rules. In order to obtain a point set from an
aperiodic tiling, points are placed at the vertices of each tile. Here we include a
more detailed description for three types of planar aperiodic tilings which will be
utilized in upcoming chapters.
16
Figure 2.5: Penrose aperiodic tiling.
2.2.1 Penrose Aperiodic Tiling
Discovered in 1974 by Sir Roger Penrose, the Penrose aperiodic tiling is built from
two triangular prototiles shown in Figure 2.6 where = /5 and =
1+
5
2
is the
golden ratio.
Figure 2.7 displays four iterations of the ination and substitution process
applied to the red prototile from Figure 2.6. It is interesting to note that the
number of tiles grows according to the Fibonacci sequence (1 2 3 5 8
. . .). As mentioned before Penrose tiling possesses 5-fold rotational symmetry. The
rotational symmetry is clear in Figure 2.5. The diraction pattern for a Penrose
set point is shown in Figure Figure 2.4.
2.2.2 Danzer Aperiodic Tiling
Danzer tiling of plane was discovered by Ludwig Danzer [18]. The prototile set for
this tiling consists of three triangles shown in Figure 2.8 where = /7 and a, b,
17
Figure 2.6: Prototiles of the Penrose tiling ( = /5 and =
1+
5
2
).
Figure 2.7: Iterative ination and substitution of Penrose prototiles.
and c are related by the law of sines
a
sin
=
b
sin 2
=
c
sin 4
(2.9)
We refer to the three prototiles in Figure 2.8 simply as type I, type II, and type
III (displayed from left to right). Danzer tiling has 7-fold rotational symmetry and
from the set of prototiles, the tiling can be generated either based on matching rules
or using the ination and substitution method. Figure 2.9 displays two iterations
18
Figure 2.8: Prototiles of the Danzer aperiodic tiling ( = /7).
Figure 2.9: Two iterations of ination and substitution applied to Danzer prototile
type III.
of the ination and substitution applied to type III prototiles of the Danzer tiling.
2.2.3 Ammann-Beenker Aperiodic Tiling
Ammann-Beenker (A-B) aperiodic tilings were discovered in 1970s by Robert Am-
mann [19]. A-B tiling possesses 8-fold rotational symmetry and it consists of three
prototiles: a square, a rhombus (vertex angles /4 and 3/4), and an isosceles right
triangle. Similar to the previous two tilings, the simplest way to generate large
tilings is utilizing ination and substitution method. Figure 2.10 shows two iter-
19
Figure 2.10: Two iterations of ination and substitution applied to square prototile
of A-B tiling.
Figure 2.11: Prototiles of the A-B tiling and their relative dimensions.
ations of the ination and substitution applied to a square prototile. Figure 2.11
shows the relative dimensions of the prototiles where as it is shown, a denotes the
side of the square prototile.
2.3 Higher-Dimensional Approach
Using aperiodic tilings is one way to generate quasicrystalline arrays. The main
advantage of this method is that it is rather simple and does not require a large
amount of mathematical rigor. The main disadvantage of aperiodic tilings is that
only a very limited number of them have been discovered. The three aperiodic
20
tilings we have covered thus far possess 5, 7, and 8-fold rotational symmetries
respectively. There is another method which can generate quasicrystalline geome-
tries of any required order of rotational symmetry and does not require aperiodic
tilings. This method known as the higher dimensional approach [16], is based
on the fact that a quasicrystalline lattice in E
n
with k-fold rotational symmetry
(k > n) can be obtained as an irrational projection of a point lattice in E
k
onto
E
n
.
As it will be seen in the upcoming chapters the lack of translational symme-
try makes it very challenging to analyze the electromagnetic (EM) properties of
systems based on quasicrystalline geometries. In recent years there has been some
eorts to use the higher-dimensional approach to study the EM properties of qua-
sicrystals [20]. Here as a simple example we demonstrate how a Fibonacci sequence
can be obtained as a projection of a 2D point lattice onto a line.
Figure 2.12 shows a standard 2D integer point lattice J
2
p
. Thus using the
standard basis each lattice point can be represented as an integer pair (m
1
, m
2
).
Let l be a line through origin with a slope of
1
. This would ensure that the line

l does not cross any other lattice points. Hence l forms an irrational subspace of
E
2
. We also dene l
as the orthogonal subspace to l. Furthermore, we dene

two mappings and
as orthogonal projections onto l and l
respectively. The
Voronoi cell at the origin is denoted by V (0).
Let X be a subset of J
2
p
whose cells are cut by l. It can be shown that
(X)
belongs to
(V (0)). Thus mathematically the X can be dened as [14]:

X =
_
x J
2
p
[
(x)
(V (0))
_
(2.10)
It can be shown that (X) forms a Fibonacci sequence [14].
21
Figure 2.12: Higher-dimensional approach demonstrated to obtain a Fibonacci
sequence as a projection of J
2
p
onto an irrational subspace.
Chapter 3
Ultra-Wideband Aperiodic Antenna
Arrays
3.1 Introduction
The recent development of micro-UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) swarm technol-
ogy has generated a great amount of interest within the intelligence gathering and
remote sensing communities. Micro-UAV swarms generally consist of a variety of
simple, inexpensive sensors distributed across multiple airborne platforms. These
platforms are capable of sharing data and resources, leading to an aggregate sys-
tem that gathers and processes the information in order to perform higher order
operations and tasks. Because the sensors in a micro-UAV swarm are distributed
across multiple platforms, the system lacks a single point of failure. This makes
micro-UAV swarms a favorable solution for hazardous and hostile situations. For
example, a potential application for this technology is in the monitoring of the
environment for nuclear and chemical contamination [21]. In such a situation, a
swarm of micro-UAVs containing appropriate sensors could be own over a large
area, relaying information back to the base if contaminates are discovered. This
methodology is advantageous to the single sensor approach because the micro-
UAVs could be distributed over a wide area with simple ight plans, reducing the
complexity and size requirements of the airborne platforms and allowing for the
collection of real time information across a wide region of interest.
23
In addition to environmental monitoring, there is interest in applying micro-
UAV swarms to radar imaging applications. In a conventional radar imaging sys-
tem, a single aircraft platform carries the instrumentation. In order to reduce the
risk to the system in hostile situations, the aircraft must operate from a safe dis-
tance with respect to the area of interest. In this scenario, the system must utilize
a high gain antenna that operates over a wide bandwidth in order to obtain the
required resolution. On the other hand, the micro-UAV approach is designed to
y into hostile areas and gather data directly. The swarm is designed to y over a
wide area, creating a large aperture that can provide high resolution imagery with-
out the use of wide-band receivers or other expensive components and integration.
In addition, the impact of aircraft attrition can be minimized by distributing re-
sources and allowing the ight formation to adapt in real time. For these reasons,
micro-UAV swarms can provide a cost eective solution for a variety of intelligence
gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications.
However, two major challenges face micro-UAV swarm-based radar technology.
The rst challenge is maintaining coherent beamforming despite the ever chang-
ing nature of the aperture. The eects of turbulence and other positional errors
can have a dramatic impact on the radiation pattern. In order to address this
issue, a robust phase compensation algorithm that allows for the resolution of the
mainbeam even in turbulent environments is introduced. The second challenge is
designing formations that can reduce the risk of midair collisions between micro-
UAVs. In order to resolve targets of interest, these systems must be functional at
frequencies that place the operating wavelength on the order of the aircraft size or
smaller. Therefore in order to avoid possible collisions, it is necessary to keep the
minimum separation distance between the aircraft on the order of several wave-
lengths. However, conventional array theory dictates that interelement spacings
beyond one wavelength in a periodic array will lead to the appearance of radiation
pattern grating lobes. These grating lobes essentially alias the radiation pattern,
causing errors that can seriously limit the accuracy and eectiveness of the system.
In this chapter, we discuss antenna arrays based on aperiodic tilings that can
operate eectively over wide bandwidths and inter-element spacings. Such arrays
were initially investigated in [22] and improved upon in [2]. Furthermore, we intro-
duce a modied and more dynamic optimization method for aperiodic arrays which
24
vastly improves their radiation properties. This method utilizes global optimiza-
tion techniques with robust nature-inspired geometries to form the sparse planar
array layouts. Due to their optimized aperiodicity, the radiation patterns of these
arrays possess low peak side-lobe levels and are devoid of grating lobes even over
multi-wavelength interelement spacings. In addition, these arrays oer ecient
solutions to the micro-UAV swarm problem by covering the same aperture with
a considerably smaller number of elements than a comparable size periodic array.
Several examples of an aperiodic micro-UAV swarm are discussed. Through these
examples, we illustrate how the combination of the phase compensation algorithm
with aperiodic array apertures can achieve high radiation pattern resolution in a
micro-UAV swarm-based radar imaging application.
3.2 Planar Antenna Arrays
Phased antenna arrays are employed in a wide variety of modern radar and high
performance communication systems. They oer a degree of agile pattern control
and low sidelobe levels well beyond single aperture antennas. We start by con-
sidering the far-eld radiation pattern of an arbitrary planar antenna array in the
xy-plane. For simplicity isotropic radiating elements and e
jt
time-dependence are
assumed where j =
1 and = 2f denotes the angular frequency. A general

expression for the normalized far-eld radiation pattern of an array of N isotropic
radiators (unit excitation) is given by:
AF(, ) =
1
N
N
n=1
exp j [k n r
n
+
n
] (3.1)
where r
n
is the position vector for element n and k =
2
is the free-space wavenum-

ber. Also, n = [sin cos , sin sin , cos ] is the unit vector pointing in the di-
rection of the far-eld observation point at (, ) and
n
represents the phase of
the current excitation for element n. As mentioned we are considering arrays in
the xy-plane, hence r
n
= [r
n
cos
n
, r
n
sin
n
, 0] , where (r
n
,
n
) denote the polar
coordinates of element n. Thus the array factor expression from Eq. (3.1) can be
25
simplied as:
AF(, ) =
1
N
N
n=1
exp j [kr
n
sin cos(
n
) +
n
] (3.2)
The phase values
n
can be adjusted to steer beam in a given direction. By
inspecting Eq. (3.2) it is evident that to steer the main beam toward (
0
,
0
), we
must have:
n
= kr
n
sin
0
cos(
0
n
) (3.3)
3.2.1 Periodic Antenna Arrays
The most common lattices used to construct antenna arrays are periodic lattices
where all elements are spaced an equal distance apart. While providing a simple
architecture and a predictable performance, the periodic nature of these arrays
provides a limited bandwidth. The limited bandwidth is due to the appearance of
grating lobes, undesired beams of radiation equal to the intensity of the main beam.
Considering the standard periodic array with element spacing d
min
, the grating
lobes appear as the the element spacing d
min
exceeds the operating wavelength .
As an example Figure 3.1 shows the radiation pattern of a periodic array of
441 elements with main beam steered toward broadside and operating wavelength
= 2d
min
. In all the radiation pattern plots throughout the paper the elevation
angle () is measured radially along the x and y axes whereas the azimuthal angle
() is measured azimuthally in the xy-plane. As it can be seen from the plot, since
the operating wavelength is larger than the element spacing the radiation is devoid
of any grating lobes. Figure 3.2 shows the radiation pattern of the same periodic
array of with main beam steered toward broadside and =
d
min
2
. In this case, the
radiation pattern displays several grating lobes which are highly undesirable.
Thus it can be seen that periodic antenna arrays cannot provide large operating
bandwidths due to the presence of grating lobes at higher frequencies.
3.2.2 Aperiodic Antenna Arrays
Antenna arrays based on aperiodic tilings were rst proposed in [22]. Converting
an aperiodic tiling to an antenna array is a straightforward process and simply
26
Figure 3.1: Radiation pattern of a periodic array of 441 isotropic radiators with
main beam steered toward broadside and operating wavelength = 2d
min
.
requires placing antenna elements at the vertices of the tiling. As a direct con-
sequence of the lack of translational symmetry, the radiation patterns of these
aperiodic tiling antenna arrays are void of grating lobes regardless of the oper-
ating frequency. However in their native form, these arrays are not suitable for
wideband applications due to their relatively high side-lobes. Danzer aperiodic
tiling was introduced in Chapter 2. The tiling consists of three prototiles shown
in Figure 3.3 and can be generated using the ination and substitution process.
Figure 3.4 shows the geometry of an array of 659 elements that was generated
from a Danzer tiling. We denote the minimum, maximum, and average spacing
of the array as d
min
, d
max
, and d
avg
. Of course such distinction does not apply to
standard periodic arrays. In a Danzer array these three values are roughly related
by
d
min
1

d
avg
1.05

d
max
2.25
(3.4)
Figures 3.5 and 3.6 show the normalized radiation patterns of the Danzer ar-
ray displayed in Figure 3.4 at operational wavelengths of = 2d
min
and =
d
min
2
27
Figure 3.2: Radiation pattern of a periodic array of 441 isotropic radiators with
d
min
2
.
respectively. As it can be seen from Figure 3.6 even as the minimum spacing ex-
ceeds the operating wavelength the radiation pattern does not display any grating
lobes. However using the standard value of 10dB as the sidelobe criteria for our
denition of bandwidth, we see that sidelobe values are too high.
3.3 Optimization of Aperiodic Tiling Arrays
As it was shown in the previous section, antenna arrays based on aperiodic tilings in
their native form are not suitable for wideband applications due to their relatively
high sidelobes. To overcome this issue, a perturbation method was developed in
[2]. This method starts by placing a xed and equal number of additional points
within the boundary of each prototile of an aperiodic set. The ination process
is then carried out to generate the tiling. Converting this perturbed tiling to
an array yields elements at the vertices of the tiling as well as elements at the
perturbation points. The resulting array also needs to be scaled to obtain the
desired minimum spacing. As a result of the ination process, the relative position
28
of each perturbation element within a prototile is conserved. For each perturbation
element, the location is specied by two variables and these variables are optimized
to obtain the best radiation properties. The optimal location of the perturbation
elements can be chosen by a genetic algorithm (GA). GAs are very well established
methods for performing global optimization of electromagnetic problems. They are
based on evolutionary principles and natural selection. A brief introduction of GA
is included in Appendix A. For a more complete description of GAs and their
applications in electromagnetics, the reader is referred to reference [23].
In this chapter a modied perturbation method is used to enhance the radiation
properties of the arrays. In the method developed in [2] the number of perturbation
elements for each prototile is predetermined and all the prototiles have the same
number of perturbation elements. The process can be made more dynamic by
letting the optimizer choose the number of perturbation points for each prototile
and then nd their optimal locations. Using this method, in the nal design,
dierent prototiles can (and usually do) have a dierent number of perturbation
points. To make the optimization less complex usually the range for the number
of perturbation points for each prototile is xed and it is left to the GA to pick the
29
Figure 3.4: Geometry of an aperiodic array of 659 elements generated from a
Danzer tiling.
optimal number of points within this range. Intuitively, this modied approach
makes more sense, since dierent prototiles have dierent areas and one can place
more perturbation elements in larger prototiles.
At this point, we discuss two examples of optimized arrays based on Danzer
aperiodic tilings. The radiation properties of the arrays are further improved
by optimally placing the appropriate number of radiating elements inside each
prototile. Assuming there are m, n, and p points for the type I, type II, and
type III prototiles respectively, a total of 2(m + n + p) variables are required
to determine the location of these perturbation points. In addition, the optimal
number of points in each prototile (m, n, p) has to be determined. Hence a total of
2(m+n+p)+3 variables must be optimized for each array. Each tiling is scaled so
that the elements will have a minimum spacing of 0.5 at the principal frequency
f
0
(with corresponding wavelength ) and we consider a circular aperture with a
radius of 12 for the array. Also, the range for the number of perturbation points
30
Figure 3.5: Radiation pattern of an aperiodic Danzer array of 659 isotropic radia-
tors with main beam steered toward broadside and operating wavelength = 2d
min
.
for each prototile is 0 5. Hence for a Danzer tiling which has three prototiles
there are a total of 33 optimization variables. As mentioned earlier these variables
are optimized using a GA. For our purpose we use a binary coded GA with single
point cross-overs. Moreover, even though the optimal number of perturbation
points for each prototile can be less than the maximum number allowed, within the
GA optimization process we have incorporated the maximum number of variables
in each chromosome. When the number of perturbation points is less than the
maximum, the additional variables are simply disregarded.
For the rst design our goal is to have an array which minimizes the side-lobe
level at f = 4f
0
which corresponds to a minimum spacing of 2. Figure 3.7 shows
the geometry of the optimized array. It has a total of 267 elements. The number
of perturbation points for the type I, type II, and type III prototiles are 3, 4,
and 4 respectively. Figure 3.8 shows the perturbed prototiles with the additional
optimized elements and Figure 3.9 shows a segment of the tiling generated using
these perturbed prototiles.
A closer inspection of the geometry in Figure 3.7 also reveals the rotational
31
Figure 3.6: Radiation pattern of an aperiodic Danzer array of 659 isotropic radia-
tors with main beam steered toward broadside and operating wavelength =
d
min
2
.
symmetry which is characteristic of aperiodic tilings. The array has a PSLL of
16dB at f = f
0
and a PSLL of 13.62dB at f = 4f
0
(the array performance was
optimized for the latter frequency). Figure 3.10 shows the sidelobe level perfor-
mance of the array and for comparison the sidelobe level performance of a periodic
array and a standard Danzer array are also shown. Using the standard value of
10dB as the sidelobe criteria for our denition of bandwidth, it can be seen that
the optimized array far outperforms the periodic and the standard Danzer array.
Also from the plot it can be seen that the bandwidth of the optimized array ex-
tends well beyond the targeted design frequency. From the plot it can be seen
that this array has a bandwidth that extends up to 14.4f
0
. Figure 3.11 shows
the normalized radiation pattern for this array at f = 4f
0
which corresponds to a
minimum spacing of 2.
For the second design our goal was to design an ultra-wideband array. We
attempted to maximize the sidelobe suppression at f = 30f
0
which corresponds to
a minimum spacing of 15. Figure 3.12 shows the perturbed prototiles with the
additional perturbation elements and Figure 3.13 shows the resulting array. The
32
Figure 3.7: Geometry of optimized Danzer array (267 elements) for maximum
sidelobe suppression at f = 4f
0
.
Figure 3.8: Three optimized Danzer prototiles with additional perturbation ele-
ments used to generate the antenna array in Figure 3.7.
optimized array has a total of 505 elements. As it can be seen from Figure 3.12,
33
Figure 3.9: A segment of the Danzer tiling generated with the perturbed prototiles
shown in Figure 3.8.
the number of perturbation points for the type I, type II, and type III prototiles
are 3, 3, and 4 respectively. The array has a PSLL of 17.8dB at f = f
0
and
a PSLL of 11.66dB at f = 30f
0
(the array performance was optimized for the
latter frequency). A signicant sidelobe suppression exits far beyond the targeted
optimization frequency resulting in a very large operating bandwidth of 63 : 1.
Figure 3.14 shows the sidelobe level performance of the array and for comparison
the sidelobe level performance of a periodic array and a standard Danzer array are
also shown. Figure 3.15 illustrates the normalized radiation pattern for this array
at f = 30f
0
which corresponds to a minimum spacing of 15.
34
Figure 3.10: Sidelobe level performance of the Danzer array optimized for side-lobe
suppression at f = 4f
0
. The performances of a uniform periodic array as well as a
base Danzer array are also shown for comparison.
Figure 3.11: The ideal radiation pattern for the 267 element aperiodic tiling array
shown in in Figure 3.7 at operating wavelength =
d
min
2
.
35
Figure 3.12: Three optimized Danzer prototiles with additional perturbation ele-
ments used to generate the antenna array in Figure 3.13.
Figure 3.13: Geometry of optimized Danzer array (505 elements) for maximum
side-lobe suppression at f = 30f
0
.
36
Figure 3.14: Side-lobe level performance of the Danzer array optimized for side-
0
. The performances of a uniform periodic array as
well as a base Danzer array are also shown for comparison.
3.4 Positional Noise Analysis and Error Correc-
tion
Due to their distributed nature, micro-UAV swarm-based arrays are subject to the
eects of turbulence and other positional errors. In order to resolve a coherent
radiation pattern, it is essential to understand the nature of these errors and pro-
vide appropriate phase compensation for each of the individual antenna elements.
We start by considering the eects of positional noise on the radiation pattern of
an array. The expression in Eq. (3.1) describes the ideal radiation pattern of an
antenna array. By ideal we mean that the position of each element n is exactly
r
n
. However in actuality due to their distributed nature, the elements are subject
to some type of positional noise. A general expression for the normalized far-eld
37
Figure 3.15: Normalized array factor for the optimized Danzer array with 505
elements at f = 30f
0
.
radiation pattern of an array in the presence of turbulence is given by:
AF(, ) =
1
N
N
n=1
exp j [k n (r
n
+r
n
) +
n
] (3.5)
where r
n
denes the positional noise associated with element n. This noise
is represented by a three dimensional Gaussian random variable [ r
nx
r
ny
r
nz
]
A(0, ). It can be reasonably assumed that the covariance matrix is diagonal
= diag
_
2
x
,
2
y
,
2
z
_
which implies that the error terms in each of the three di-
mensions are uncorrelated. Also for simplicity and without loss of generality it is
assumed that
2
x
=
2
y
=
2
z
=
2
. Now the positional error vector can be dened
as r
n
= [ r
nx
r
ny
r
nz
] [ x yz]
T
. Figure 3.16 illustrates how these vectors are used
to describe the overall micro-UAV swarm geometry. At this point in the discus-
sion, it is desirable to separate the phase term of each antenna element into two
components.
n
=
in
+
cn
(3.6)
38
Figure 3.16: Geometry of a micro-UAV formation. In this illustration, r
n
represents
the nominal position of aircraft n, r
n
represents the error due to turbulence, and
n is the unit vector pointing in the direction of the far-eld observation point at
(, ).
where
in
represents the ideal phase of element n and
cn
represents the correction
phase of element n. The goal of the ideal phase term is to point the mainbeam of
the array in the direction of (
0
,
0
), creating a uniform phase front in the planes
normal to a vector n
0
. The correction phase term is used to minimize the eects
of positional noise on the mainbeam of the radiation pattern. By separating the
phase term into these two variables, it becomes possible to dene the radiation
pattern in terms of element patterns based on ideal positions, AF
n
, and terms
governing the positional error and subsequent phase correction of each antenna
element, AF
n
:
AF(, ) =
1
N
N
n=1
_
1 + AF
n
(, )
AF
n
(, ) (3.7)
where,
_
1 + AF
n
(, )
= exp j [k n r
n
+
cn
] (3.8)
AF
n
(, ) = exp j [k n r
n
+
in
] (3.9)
39
At the center of the mainbeam, the expression simplies to be:
AF(
0
,
0
) =
1
N
N
n=1
exp j [k n
0
r
n
+
cn
] (3.10)
Therefore the phase required to eliminate the eects of positional noise on the
mainbeam is dened as:
cn
= k n
0
r
n
(3.11)
where r
n
is determined by onboard inertial navigation systems (INS) or another
swarm based guidance network. Figure 3.17 illustrates how this phase correction
factor is used to create a coherent mainbeam. In this gure, several aircrafts are
jostled from their ideal positions in the xy plane. The swarm is still capable of
pointing its mainbeam in a negative z direction by ensuring the transmitted signals
from each element are in phase as they cross the xy plane. At this point it is
Figure 3.17: Eect of the phase correction factor in the direction of the mainbeam.
In this example, the mainbeam of the radiation pattern is pointed in the direction
n
0
= z. The phase correction term
cn
is used to ensure the phase of the signal
from aircraft n is equal to zero at z = 0. This process is repeated for each aircraft,
ensuring a beam can be resolved in the n
0
direction.
possible to dene a linear expression for the positional error and phase correction
term. If the argument of the expression is small, we can use the Taylor series
approximation exp x 1 + x to dene an approximation for AF
n
given by
AF
n
(, ) j [k n r
n
+
cn
] (3.12)
40
Since the orientation of r
n
is uniformly random in all directions, we can replace
the vector by the magnitude of the random variable in any given direction, r
n

A(0,
2
). If we include the phase correction term used to minimize errors in the
mainbeam, expression in Eq. (3.12) reduces to:
AF
n
(, ) j [k( n n
0
) r
n
] (3.13)
Here in order to analyze AF
n
, it is helpful to dene

AF
n
(, ) = [k( n n
0
) r
n
]
such that AF
n
(, ) = j
AF
n
(, ). At this point, the angle , illustrated in
Figure 3.18, is dened as the angle between n
0
and n (i.e. the angle the observation
point deviates from the boresight of the array). Applying the denition of , an
Figure 3.18: Illustration of angle , the angle between the observation direction,
n and the boresight of the array, n
0
.
expression for the magnitude of the error is derived:
AF
n
(, ) = k r
n
_
sin
2
+ (1 cos
2
)
AF
n
(, ) = k r
n
_
2(1 cos ) (3.14)
This can be represented as a dependent Gaussian random variable:
AF
n
(, ) A
_
0,
_
k
_
2(1 cos )
_
2
_
(3.15)
Finally the overall error of the phase corrected system can be represented by:
AF(, ) =
1
N
N
n=1
AF
n
(, )AF
n
(, ) (3.16)
41
which is a weighted sum of N independent random variables,

AF
n
. It is also
important to note that in Eq. (3.16) we have disregarded j since [j[ = 1 and it will
have no eect on the overall value of the error. In general if a random variable y is
dened as the average of a linear combination of N uncorrelated Gaussian random
variables x
i
for i = 1, 2, ..., N such that
y =
1
N
N
n=1
a
n
x
n
, x
n
A(
n
,
2
n
) (3.17)
it can easily be shown that y will also be Gaussian with mean
y
and variance
2
y
of
y
=
1
N
N
n=1
a
n
n
(3.18)
2
y
=
1
N
2
N
n=1
a
2
n
2
n
(3.19)
Hence the variance of the overall system can be expressed as
2
system

1
N
2
N
n=1
[AF
n
(, )]
2
2
n
(3.20)
where
2
n
is the variance of

AF
n
. It is important to note that since the observation
point and mainbeam focus are in the far-eld, the variance,
2
, is equivalent for
every element of the array. Therefore, we can use the expansion
2
system

1
N
2
N
n=1
[AF
n
(, )]
2
2
(3.21)
Finally, since excitation amplitudes are equal and normalized, max (AF
2
n
) = 1, we
can establish a bound on the variance of the system:
2
system

2k
2
2
(1 cos )
N
(3.22)
This expression indicates how our swarm-based array will operate in a turbulent
environment and what factors drive overall system level performance. First it is im-
42
portant to note that the error of the system increases as the operational frequency
increases; however, as long as the tolerance of the electrical spacing remains the
same, the error remains independent of aperture size. This indicates that sparse
arrays are no more susceptible to turbulence than standard arrays. Next, the error
of the system is inversely proportional to the number of elements in the array,
indicating that large-N arrays are more robust to positional tolerances than ar-
rays with a smaller number of elements. Finally, the error of this system varies
with respect to distance from boresight. The error correction algorithm reduces
the error for observation points within 60
from broadside. It remains possible for

larger errors at angles greater than 60
; however, because most element patterns

have beamwidths much less than 120
, the algorithm is eective in reducing the

performance degradation seen by the swarm through turbulence.
3.5 Examples
In this section we present some examples of error correction algorithm that was
developed in the previous section applied to periodic and aperiodic planar arrays
with simulated positional noise. For the rst example we consider a standard
periodic planar array. For our second example we consider the optimized Danzer
array from Section 3.3 with 267 elements that was optimized for minimum side-
lobe level at f = 4f
0
which corresponds to a minimum spacing of 2. As it
will be demonstrated while the algorithm does restore the main beam for both
types of arrays, it did not eliminate the grating lobes associated with the periodic
arrays. However the aperiodic arrays still displayed no grating lobes and a large
suppression of the side-lobes over a wide operating bandwidth after the application
of the error correction algorithm. These desirable properties of aperiodic arrays
in conjunction with the error correction algorithm can be exploited for creating
robust swarm formations.
3.5.1 Periodic Array
At this point we consider the performance of a micro-UAV swarm based on a
periodic array. In order to reduce the risk the micro-UAVs will collide in midair,
43
the minimum spacing between elements is set to be 2. The lattice is truncated
by a circular aperture with a radius of 48, for a total number of 1793 elements.
Figure 3.19 illustrates the ideal radiation pattern for this periodic micro-UAV
formation. As it can be seen from the plot, the radiation pattern exhibits several
grating lobes. When the formation is corrupted by a random zero-mean Gaussian
Figure 3.19: The ideal radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based on a 1793
element periodic array.
positional noise ( = 0.1), the mainbeam of the radiation pattern disappears
into the incoherent sidelobes of the array (see Figure 3.20). However, Figure3.21
illustrates that when the phase compensation algorithm is applied to the array,
the mainbeam of the pattern once again is able to be resolved. Nevertheless, it is
apparent that the grating lobes nearest to the mainbeam are still present in the
corrected periodic micro-UAV swarm pattern. It is for this reason that the periodic
lattice is insucient for micro-UAV swarm applications.
3.5.2 Optimized Aperiodic Array: Broadside
We rst consider the example of a micro-UAV swarm that is based on the 267
element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7 with its main beam steered at
44
Figure 3.20: The corrupted radiation pattern of a 1793 element periodic micro-
UAV swarm. The swarm is corrupted by a Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1.
broadside. While the nominal positions of the array elements are restricted to the
xy plane, the positional noise of each aircraft system is estimated by a spherical
Gaussian distribution. Cross-sections of this distribution are dened to have a
standard deviation = 0.1. Figure 3.22 illustrates the positional noise eect.
The circles around each element show the 3 likely locations of aircraft. The dis-
tribution is Gaussian which has a drop o e
r
2
, where r denotes the distance
of the element from its ideal location (magnitude of positional noise). The ideal
normalized radiation pattern for the aperiodic array was shown in Figure 3.11 at
f = 4f
0
which corresponds to a minimum spacing of 2. As it can be seen from the
plot, the radiation pattern does not exhibit any grating lobes. Figure 3.23 illus-
trates the normalized radiation pattern of the same array, where element locations
are corrupted by a random zero-mean Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1.
Figure 3.23 demonstrates that even small amounts of positional noise will cause
signicant changes in the radiation pattern eectively eliminating the main beam.
To compensate for the errors around the main beam, the phase correction algo-
rithm introduced in Section 3.4 is applied to the array. Since we are dealing with
45
Figure 3.21: The phase corrected radiation pattern of a 1793 element periodic
micro-UAV swarm. The swarm is corrupted by a Gaussian positional noise with
= 0.1.
broadside arrays, according to Eq. (3.11) the correction phase for each element
is simply k r
nz
, where k is the free space wave number and r
nz
is the positional
error of the n-th aircraft from turbulence in the z direction. Applying this method
will restore the main beam for any planar array geometry. Figure 3.24 shows the
radiation pattern of the aperiodic array with positional noise after the correction
algorithm has been applied. The phase corrected radiation pattern has a PSLL of
12.95dB. Because of the optimized aperiodic nature of the array, grating lobes
do not exist in the phase corrected radiation pattern. In addition, grating lobes do
not appear even if the mainbeam of the radiation pattern is steered signicantly
from broadside. Figure 3.25 illustrates the phase corrected radiation pattern of the
micro-UAV swarm when the mainbeam is steered to the angle = 45
, = 45
.
In this example, the progressive phase shift is applied to steer the nominal pattern
and the phase correction adjusts for positional noise normal to the desired pointing
direction of the mainbeam.
46
Figure 3.22: The eects of Gaussian noise with = 0.1 on the optimized array.
The intensity of gray in circles around the elements corresponds to the probability
of the element being in that region.
47
Figure 3.23: The corrupted radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based on the
267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The swarm is corrupted
by a Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1.
Figure 3.24: The phase corrected radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based
on the 267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The swarm is
corrupted by a Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1.
48
Figure 3.25: The phase corrected radiation pattern for a micro-UAV swarm based
on the 267 element aperiodic tiling array shown in Figure 3.7. The radiation
pattern is steered to an angle = 45
, = 45
and the swarm is corrupted by a

Gaussian positional noise with = 0.1.
Chapter 4
Generalized Scattering Coecients
for Finite-Sized Spherical Arrays
4.1 Introduction
The optical properties of quasicrystals have been a topic of immense interest in
recent years. In the previous chapter we studied the application of aperiodic ge-
ometries in designing ultra-wideband antenna arrays. Another area of immense
interest has been aperiodic nanoparticle arrays of metallic particles. It has been
demonstrated that such metallic nanoparticles with sub-wavelength dimensions
display strong optical extinction in the visible or IR spectrum. This resonant be-
havior is known as the particle plasmon [5]. This plasmonic resonance makes metal
nanoparticle arrays great candidates for wide variety of applications such as SERS
substrates and bio-sensors [24, 3].
Traditionally the EM properties of metamaterials and photonic crystals have
been evaluated by exploiting their translational symmetry (periodicity). This ap-
proach signicantly simplies the analysis by applying appropriate boundary con-
ditions and only requiring Maxwells equations to be solved for one unit cell, rather
than the entire structure. However quasicrystals generally lack translational sym-
metry. This characteristic requires the development of new analytical tools that
can eciently and accurately evaluate the EM properties of aperiodic metamate-
rials.
50
One particular approach that can be applied to large aggregates of randomly
sized spheres in a dielectric medium is the Generalized Multiparticle Mie The-
ory (GMT) developed by Xu [7]. The solution obtained by GMT is a complete
solution, based on rigorous analytical expressions which account for all couplings
and multiparticle interactions. This is particularly important when studying metal
particles in their plasmonic resonance regions where many approximate methods
(e.g. discrete dipole approximation method) tend to produce relatively inaccu-
rate calculations. Furthermore, the GMT solution also includes near-eld results
which make it suitable for studying phenomena such as surface-enhanced Raman
scattering (SERS).
Traditionally the GMT method is applied based on an incident plane wave
excitation. However since a plane wave has an innite beamwidth, then it is not
possible to dene reection and transmission coecients in the usual sense when
considering the analysis of nite-size (truncated) arrays via the GMT method. Ob-
taining reection and transmission coecients are also necessary if one is interested
in extracting eective medium parameters for subwavelength arrays. To overcome
this problem, we implement an approach which is, in principle, similar to what was
introduced in [25] to dene generalized scattering parameters for two-dimensional
nite-sized arrays of cylindrical elements.
In this chapter, we extend the approach in [25] to three dimensions by placing
a circular aperture in front of a plane wave to obtain a beamwidth smaller than
the array dimensions to avoid diraction. Such a setup is very similar to realistic
experimental conditions. Fields diracted by the circular aperture must rst be
expanded in terms of vector spherical wave functions [26] (VSWF). We were able to
obtain complete analytical expansions for the diracted elds. Once the incident
eld was expanded in terms of VSWFs, the expansion coecients also had to be
calculated at the displaced coordinate systems dened by the sphere centers. In
the case of an incident plane wave, it can be shown that the expansion coecients
at the displaced systems dier from the primary expansion coecients only by a
constant phase term. However in the case of aperture diracted waves, the results
are not trivial and addition theorems for VSWF [27] have to be applied to obtain
the expansion coecients for displaced systems. Once the expansion coecients
have been determined at all the displaced coordinate systems, the GMT method
51
can be utilized and a solution for the scattered elds is obtained. Using the far-eld
expressions for scattered elds, we dene generalized transmission and reection
coecients based on total far-eld energy uxes. To test the validity of our method,
it was applied to a truncated periodic array of gold nano-spheres and compared
with the results obtained for an innite array when periodic boundary conditions
are imposed, with excellent agreement between the two approaches.
4.2 GMT with Incident Plane Wave
We consider an array of L homogeneous, nonintersecting spheres of diameter d,
and a complex permittivity embedded in a non-absorbing dielectric medium
characterized by permittivity
r
0
and permeability
r
0
. Let (X
j
, Y
j
, Z
j
) denote
the center of the jth sphere. Without loss of generality we consider a z-propagating
plane wave where the electric eld is x-polarized with unit amplitude. Assuming
e
it
time-dependence, where is the angular frequency, the incident electric eld
vector is
E
inc
= xe
ikz
(4.1)
where k =
2
is the wave number and is the incident wavelength in the dielectric

medium and i =
1. Also x, y, z denote the unit vectors in the Cartesian

coordinate system. In order to apply the GMT method, the incident eld has to
be expanded in terms of VSWFs in all L displaced coordinate systems dened
by the sphere centers. We start by considering the primary coordinate system
centered at the origin. The incident electric eld can be expanded in terms of
vector spherical basis functions N
(1)
mn
, and M
(1)
mn
as
E
inc
=
n=1
n
m=n
iE
mn
[p
mn
N
(1)
mn
(, , ) + q
mn
M
(1)
mn
(, , )] (4.2)
where (r, , ) are the spherical coordinates and = kr. The terms E
mn
, N
(1)
mn
,
and M
(1)
mn
found in Eq. (4.2) are dened as [7]
N
(1)
mn
(, , ) =
_
rn(n + 1)P
m
n
(cos )
j
n
()
52
+[
mn
(cos ) +

i
mn
(cos )]
n
()
_
e
im
M
(1)
mn
(, , ) =
_
i
mn
(cos )

mn
(cos )
_
j
n
()e
im
E
mn
= i
n
_
(2n + 1)(n m)!
n(n + 1)(n + m)!
_
1/2
(4.3)
where P
m
n
(cos ) is the associated Legendre function of the rst kind of degree n
and order m, j
n
is the spherical Bessel function of the rst kind, and
n
() = j
n
()
is the Riccati-Bessel function. In addition, the functions
mn
(cos ) and
mn
(cos )
are deend as
mn
(cos ) =
m
sin
P
m
n
(cos )
mn
(cos ) =
d
d
P
m
n
(cos ) (4.4)
Here we adopt the convention for the associated Legendre function which omits
the (1)
m
term [28].
P
m
n
(x) = (1 x
2
)
m/2
d
m
dx
m
P
n
(x) (4.5)
where P
n
is the Legendre polynomial of order n. In the remainder of this chapter,
for the sake of brevity, we forgo writing the argument for functions
mn
,
mn
, P
m
n
,
and P
n
. Unless otherwise stated, it is always assumed that these functions have
cos as their argument. In practice the expansion is truncated to N
max
terms
(n = 1, 2, . . . , N
max
). The expansion coecients p
mn
and q
mn
are obtained using
the orthogonality of VSWFs and integrating Eq. (4.2) which leads to
q
mn
=
i
_
2
0
_
0
E
inc
M
(1)
mn
sin dd
E
mn
_
2
0
_
M
(1)
mn
2
sin dd
(4.6)
p
mn
=
i
_
2
0
_
0
E
inc
N
(1)
mn
sin dd
E
mn
_
2
0
_
N
(1)
mn
2
sin dd
(4.7)
53
In the case of an incident plane wave of the form in Eq. (4.1), the expansion
coecients reduce to following simple expressions [7]
p
mn
= q
mn
= 0, [m[ , = 1
p
1n
= q
1n
=
2n + 1
2
p
1n
= q
1n
=
2n + 1
2
(4.8)
As mentioned, it is required that expansion coecients be evaluated in all displaced
coordinate systems dened by the sphere centers. In the case of an incident plane
wave, this is a trivial matter. It can easily be shown that if q
j
mn
and p
j
mn
denote
the expansion coecients in the jth system with its origin at (X
j
, Y
j
, Z
j
), they
only dier from primary expansion coecients by a constant phase term [7]. For
a z-propagating plane wave, the displaced expansion coecients are given by
p
j
mn
= exp(ikZ
j
)p
mn
, q
j
mn
= exp(ikZ
j
)q
mn
(4.9)
Hence in the jth system the expansion of the electric eld has the form
E
j
inc
=
n=1
n
m=n
iE
mn
[p
j
mn
N
(1)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
) + q
j
mn
M
(1)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
)] (4.10)
Similarly, for each sphere the scattered and internal elds can be expanded in
terms of spherical harmonics. Denoting the internal and scattered electric elds of
the jth sphere by E
I
(j) and E
S
(j) respectively, they can be expanded as
E
I
(j) =
n=1
n
m=n
iE
mn
[d
j
mn
N
(1)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
) + c
j
mn
M
(1)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
)] (4.11)
E
S
(j) =
n=1
n
m=n
iE
mn
[a
j
mn
N
(3)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
) + b
j
mn
M
(3)
mn
(
j
,
j
,
j
)] (4.12)
where N
(3)
mn
and M
(3)
mn
are dened in a similar manner as N
(1)
mn
and M
(1)
mn
in Eq. (4.3),
except that the spherical Hankel function of the rst kind (h
(1)
n
) is substituted for
the spherical Bessel function of the rst kind (j
n
). The expansion coecients
54
a
j
mn
, b
j
mn
, c
j
mn
, and d
j
mn
are known as the interactive scattering coecients and
they can be obtained by solving the linear systems that are obtained by applying
boundary conditions to each sphere [7, 29, 30]. Here it is important to note that for
each sphere, the total incident eld consists of the original incident wave E
inc
plus
the scattered elds of all other spheres. Thus in order to obtain the appropriate
boundary conditions it is essential to be able to express the expansion coecient
in one coordinate system in terms of the basis set of another coordinate system.
The connection between expansion coecients in translated coordinate systems
(
l
,
l
,
l
) and (
j
,
j
,
j
) were derived by Stein [31]and Cruzan [32]:
M
(3)
mn
(
l
,
l
,
l
) =
=0
=
_
A
mn
(l, j)M
(1)
(
j
,
j
,
j
) + B
mn
(l, j)N
(1)
(
j
,
j
,
j
)
N
(3)
mn
(
l
,
l
,
l
) =
=0
=
_
B
mn
(l, j)M
(1)
(
j
,
j
,
j
) + A
mn
(l, j)N
(1)
(
j
,
j
,
j
)
(4.13)
where A
mn
(l, j) and B
mn
(l, j) are the so-called translation coecients. If

(d
lj
,
lj
,
lj
) denotes the spherical coordinates of the origin of the lth coordinate
system in the jth coordinate system, A
mn
(l, j) and B
mn
(l, j) are given by [33]

A
mn
(l, j) = (1)
i
n
2 + 1
2( + 1)
n+
p=|n|
_
(i)
p
[n(n + 1) + ( + 1) p(p + 1)]
a(m, n, , , p)j
p
(kd
lj
)P
(m)
p
(cos
lj
) exp (i(m)
lj
)
_
B
mn
(l, j) = (1)
i
n
2 + 1
2( + 1)
n+
p=|n|
_
(i)
p
b(m, n, , , p, p 1)
j
p
(kd
lj
)P
(m)
p
(cos
lj
) exp (i(m)
lj
)
_
(4.14)
where a(m, n, , , p) is the Gaunt coecient dened by [34]
a(m, n, , , p) =
2p + 1
2
(p m)!
(p + m + )!
_
1
1
P
m
n
(x)P
(x)P
m+
p
(x) dx (4.15)
55
and b(m, n, , , p, p 1) is dened as
b(m, n, , , p, p 1) =
2p + 1
2p 1
[( )( + + 1)a(m, n, 1, , p 1)
(p m + )(p m + 1)a(m, n, + 1, , p 1)
+2(p m + )a(m, n, , , p 1)] (4.16)
No closed form solution is known to exist for the integral in Eq. (4.15) and direct
numerical evaluation can be problematic, especially due to the presence of the
factorial terms. There is a vast amount of literature regarding the ecient and
fast evaluation of vector translation coecients based on recursive methods to
calculate Gaunt coecients [27, 35, 36]. Once all the interactive coecients have
been determined, the total scattered electric eld can be expressed in the primary
coordinate system (j
0
) as
E
S
=
n=1
n
m=n
iE
mn
[a
mn
N
(3)
mn
(, , ) + b
mn
M
(3)
mn
(, , )] (4.17)
where
a
mn
=
L
l=1
=1
=
_
a
l
mn
(l, j
0
) + b
l
mn
(l, j
0
)
b
mn
=
L
l=1
=1
=
_
a
l
mn
(l, j
0
) + b
l
mn
(l, j
0
)
(4.18)
4.3 GMT Based on Finite Beamwidth Incident
Wave
Since a plane wave has an innite beamwidth, it is not possible to dene reection
and transmission coecients in the usual sense when considering the analysis of
nite-size (truncated) arrays via the GMT method. To dene reection and trans-
mission coecients for the array, an incident beamwidth smaller than the sample
dimensions is required to avoid diraction. A simple way to obtain such an inci-
dent beam is to place a circular aperture in front of the array. For simplicity we
assume that all spheres are located in the upper half-space (z > 0) and we place
56
a circular aperture of radius a in the xy-plane (z = 0). Since the elds diracted
by the aperture in the z > 0 region will acts as the incident elds on the array,
we denote them by E
inc
. Using the Kirchho integral [37], we can show that for
an incident electric eld xe
ikz
in the z < 0 region, the scattered eld in the z > 0
region is E
inc
= E
+ E
with E
and E
given by
E
=
iake
i
J
1
(ka sin ) cos
sin
E
=
iake
i
J
1
(ka sin ) sin cos
sin
(4.19)
where J
1
is a rst order Bessel function of the rst kind.
We start by expanding the incident eld in Eq. (4.19) in terms of VSWFs
as shown in Eq. (4.2) in the primary coordinate system. Comparing the basis
functions in Eq. (4.3) and the incident eld in Eq. (4.19) it can be seen that the
expansion is problematic since the basis functions N
(1)
mn
and M
(1)
mn
are well-dened
and nite everywhere whereas the expression in Eq. (4.19) contains a singularity at
the origin. This issue can be resolved since the expression for the diracted elds
are derived assuming far-eld conditions, thus we can replace the expressions in
Eq. (4.19) with the following far-eld equivalents which are well-dened and nite
everywhere
E
=
iakJ
1
(ka sin ) cos [j
1
() + ij
2
()]
sin
E
=
iakJ
1
(ka sin ) sin cos [j
1
() + ij
2
()]
sin
(4.20)
It can easily be shown that p
mn
= q
mn
= 0 for all values of m ,= 1. Furthermore
it can be shown that q
1n
= q
1n
and p
1n
= p
1n
. Thus the only quantities that
need to be evaluated are q
1n
and p
1n
. We start by determining q
1n
, using Eq. (4.6).
Evaluating the integral in the denominator, we arrive at
_
2
0
_

0
M
(1)
1n
(, , )
2
sin dd =
4n
2
(n + 1)
2
2n + 1
j
2
n
() (4.21)
57
The numerator in Eq. (4.6) contains the integral
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d (4.22)
A closed from expression for Eq. (4.22) is not available in the literature, including
the mathematical handbooks, and cannot be found using commercial software
packages such as Mathematica. However, in this paper a derivation of an exact
solution is presented, which is expressed in terms of two auxiliary functions
n
(ka)
and
n
(ka):
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d
= n(n + 1)
n
(ka) +
n
(ka) (4.23)
Key steps of the derivation and the resulting expressions for functions
n
(ka) and
n
(ka) are given in Appendix B. Upon substituting the results from Eq. (4.23)
and Eq. (4.21) into Eq. (4.6) we arrive at
q
1n
i
n
2n(n + 1)
2n + 1
j
2
n
() = akij
n
() [j
1
() + ij
2
()] [n(n + 1)
n
(ka) +
n
(ka)] (4.24)
It is still necessary to eliminate the dependence on the radial component . Since
our derivations for the diracted elds assumed far zone conditions, we can use
the following large argument properties Bessel functions [38]
lim
j
1
() = i
n1
j
n
() if n is odd
lim
j
2
() = i
n2
j
n
() if n is even (4.25)
Next using the orthogonality property of spherical Bessel functions, we can inte-
grate with respect to the radial component
_

ij
n
() [j
1
() + ij
2
()] d
_

ij
n
()i
n1
j
n
() d =
i
n
2 + 4n
(4.26)
58
Finally we arrive at the following expression for q
1n
q
1n
=
ak
2n + 1
_
n(n + 1)
n
(ka) +
n
(ka)
_
2n(n + 1)
(4.27)
The next step in the derivation is to evaluate p
1n
. We start by evaluating the
integral in the denominator in Eq. (4.7), which has the following solution
_
2
0
_

0
N
(1)
1n
(, , )
2
sin dd =
4
n
2
(n + 1)
2
2n + 1
_
n(n + 1)
j
2
n
()
2
+
_
n
()
_
2
_
(4.28)
The numerator in Eq. (4.7) contains the integral
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d (4.29)
A closed form solution to Eq. (4.29) is apparently not available in the literature.
However, an exact solution is derived here for this integral in terms of an auxiliary
function
n
(ka):
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d = n(n + 1)
n
(ka) (4.30)
Key steps of the derivation and the resulting closed form representation for the
function
n
(ka) is provided in Appendix C. Substituting the results from Eq. (4.30)
and Eq. (4.28) into Eq. (4.7) will result in an expression with radial component.
A similar procedure that was applied to Eq. (4.24) can be used which allows for
integrating out the radial component using asymptotic and orthogonal properties
of the spherical Bessel functions resulting in:
p
1n
=
ak
2n + 1
n
(ka)
4
(4.31)
Here it is important to note that analytical expressions for both Eq. (4.22) and
Eq. (4.29) can be of great interest for vector diraction problems that arise in elec-
tromagnetic theory, especially when partial wave decomposition is required. These
59
analytical expressions will render computationally intensive numerical quadrature
methods unnecessary. There have been recent papers published which provide
analytical results for other types of diraction related integrals [39, 40]. The
closed form representations derived here for auxiliary functions
n
(ka),
n
(ka),
and
n
(ka) are all expressed in terms of nite summations involving Lommel
functions [41]. In general, evaluation of Lommel functions involves time consum-
ing numerical integrations or innite summations. The specic Lommel functions
encountered in our derivations are of the form s
+1,
(z). We were able to derive a
concise analytical expression for this particular order of Lommel functions as
s
+1,
(z) = z
( + 1)J
(z) (4.32)
where is the gamma function. The general expression for s
,
(z) as well as the
derivation of Eq. (4.32) is provided in Appendix D. Our nite summation expres-
sions for the auxiliary functions
n
(ka),
n
(ka), and
n
(ka) in addition to the
concise analytical expression obtained for the Lommel functions in Eq. (4.32) pro-
vide exact evaluations and render computationally expensive numerical techniques
unnecessary.
To verify our results, we consider an example where a plane wave with electric
eld xe
ikz
is incident upon a circular aperture of radius a, where we set k = 2
and a = 1. Figure 4.1 shows the values for [E
[ and [E
[ in the xy-plane at a
distance of D = 15 from the aperture evaluated using the analytical expressions
from Eq. (4.19). Figures 4.2, 4.3 , and 4.4 shows the corresponding values ob-
tained using 4, 6, and 8 term VSWF expansions (respectively) using the expansion
coecients from Eq. (4.27) and Eq. (4.31). As it can be seen from the plots, great
convergence is obtained using a fairly small number of terms.
The expansion coecients for the incident elds also have to be calculated in all
the L displaced coordinate systems dened by the sphere centers. As it was shown
in the case of incident plane wave, the expansion coecients in displaced coordinate
systems only vary by a phase term. However in our case, the relationship is not as
simple and the displaced expansion coecients have be evaluated by application
of vector translational addition theorems. It can be shown that in general q
j
mn
and
60
Figure 4.1: [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using the analytical expressions from Eq. (4.19).
Figure 4.2: [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using a four term VSWF expansion.
p
j
mn
may be calculated from
p
j
mn
=
=1
=
E
E
mn
_
p
mn
(j
0
, j) + q
mn
(j
0
, j)
_
q
j
mn
=
=1
=
E
E
mn
_
p
mn
(j
0
, j) + q
mn
(j
0
, j)
_
(4.33)
where p
and q
are primary expansion coecients and E
and E
mn
are dened
according to Eq. (4.3). A
mn
(j
0
, j) and B
mn
(j
0
, j) are vector translation coecients
and are evaluated according to Eq. (4.14) except that the spherical Bessel function
61
Figure 4.3: [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using a six term VSWF expansion.
Figure 4.4: [E
[ (left) and [E

aperture evaluated using an eight term VSWF expansion.
of the rst kind (j
p
(kd
lj
)) is replaced for the spherical Hankel function of the
rst kind
_
h
(1)
p
(kd
lj
)
_
. As previously mentioned direct evaluation of translation
coecients is not feasible. Here we utilized a recursive approach described in [36].
As an example, here we consider the scattered eld in the plane of an array
of gold nano-spheres. The array is based on an Ammann-Beenker (AB) aperiodic
tiling, which is shown in Figure 4.5. The prototile set consists of a rhombus ( vertex
angles /4 and 3/4 ) and an isosceles right triangle[16]. Using specic matching
rules, these prototiles can cover the two-dimensional plane without translational
symmetry. The tiling can be converted to an array by placing elements at the
62
Figure 4.5: Geometry of an aperiodic Ammann-Beenker tiling.
vertices of each tile followed by the proper scaling and truncation. The array
is composed of 353 gold spheres of radius 80 nm and scaled such that there is a
minimum center to center spacing of 450 nm (290 nm surface to surface) between
spheres. A modied Drude model[42] is used to represent the dielectric function
of gold
() =
2
p
2
+ i
(4.34)
with
= 9,
p
= 13.8 10
15
s
1
, and = 0.11 10
15
s
1
. It is assumed that the
array is contained in the xy-plane. Figure 4.6 shows the normalized local scattered
elds in the plane of the array when illuminated by a linearly polarized plane wave
E
inc
= xe
ikz
with a wavelength of = 500 nm. To obtain the scattered elds in
this case, primary expansion coecients q
mn
and p
mn
were obtained from Eq. (4.8)
and displaced expansion coecients q
j
mn
and p
j
mn
from equations Eq. (4.9). As it
can be seen from the eld plot, all of the elements are illuminated and there is
considerable diraction of elds around the periphery of the structure. Next we
place a circular aperture with radius of a = 1 m at a distance D in front of the
array with the plane wave incident upon it. The distance of the aperture from the
array (D) must be such that diraction of the elds at the periphery of the array
63
Figure 4.6: Normalized scattered eld magnitude (dB) in the plane of the AB
aperiodic array illuminated by a plane wave.
is avoided. Considering the expression of the incident elds in Eq. (4.20), a simple
way to determine the appropriate distance is using the rst zero of the
J
1
(ka sin )
sin
term which approximately occurs at ka sin
0
3.832 . Denoting the set of spheres
on the periphery of the array by S and their spherical coordinates by (r
s
,
s
,
s
)
where s S, we dene argmin
sS
s
. The condition

0
, D = r
cos (
) (4.35)
ensures that the incident elds at the peripheral elements of the array are zero
or much diminished compared to the incident elds on the interior elements of
the array. Using Eq. (4.35) we set D = 15 m. In this case the primary expan-
sion coecients in Eq. (4.27) and Eq. (4.31) are used and displaced expansion
coecients are obtained from Eq. (4.33). Figure 4.7 shows the normalized local
scattered elds evaluated in the plane of the array when illuminated with aperture
diracted waves. As it can be seen from the eld plot, there are almost no elds
at the periphery of the array (|E
S
| < 30 dB), whereas and elds are highly
localized to the interior of the array which conrms the validity of our derivations.
64
Figure 4.7: Normalized scattered eld magnitude (dB) in the plane of the AB
aperiodic array illuminated by circular aperture diracted waves.
4.4 Generalized Scattering Coecients
In the far-eld much simpler asymptotic expressions for the total scattering coef-
cients were derived by Xu [29] as
a
mn
=
L
j=1
exp(ik
j
)a
j
mn
b
mn
=
L
j=1
exp(ik
j
)b
j
mn
(4.36)
where
j
= X
j
sin cos + Y
j
sin sin + Z
j
cos and (X
j
, Y
j
, Z
j
) denotes the
center of the jth sphere. It can be shown that for = 0, the scattered far-eld has
the form
E
S
(, 0, 0) =
ie
i
Nmax
n=1
2n + 1[a
1n
+ b
1n
]
(4.37)
Also from Eq. (4.19) it follows that the incident eld for = 0 is
E
inc
(, 0, 0) = i
(ak)
2
e
i
2
(4.38)
65
Hence the total far-eld for = 0 can be expressed as the sum of incident and
scattered elds according to
E
Total
(, 0, 0) =
ie
i
_
(ak)
2
2
+
Nmax
n=1
2n + 1[a
1n
+ b
1n
]
_
(4.39)
Here we dene a generalized transmission coecient (T) in terms of the total
far-eld energy ux relative to that of the incident eld energy ux for = 0
T =
E
Total
(, 0, 0)
E
inc
(, 0, 0)
2
(4.40)
After some simplication, we arrive at
T =
1
2
(ak)
2
Nmax
n=1
2n + 1[a
1n
+ b
1n
]
2
(4.41)
Similarly a generalized reection coecient (R) can be dened in terms of the
scattered energy ux for = relative to that of the incident energy ux for = 0
R =
E
S
(, , 0)
E
inc
(, 0, 0)
2
(4.42)
It can be shown that for = , the scattered far-eld is given by
E
S
(, , 0) =
ie
i
Nmax
n=1
(1)
n
2n + 1[a
1n
b
1n
]
(4.43)
Substituting Eq. (4.43) and Eq. (4.38) into Eq. (4.42) and after simplication, we
arrive at the following expression for R
R =
2
(ak)
2
Nmax
n=1
(1)
n
2n + 1[a
1n
b
1n
]
2
(4.44)
66
Figure 4.8: Scattering response of innite (solid lines) and nite (dashed lines)
periodic gold arrays obtained by CST MICROWAVE STUDIO and GMT with a
nite beamwidth calculated using Eq. (4.41) and Eq. (4.44).
4.5 Example
To test the validity of the results, we consider a nite-sized periodic array of gold
nano-spheres. In this case, the results for the truncated structure can be com-
pared with results obtained for an innite planar array applying periodic bound-
ary conditions. The array consists of 316 gold nano-spheres of radius 60 nm and
periodicity of 350 nm, and it is placed at a distance of 10 m away from the circu-
lar aperture. The radius of the aperture is a function of the incident wavelength
a = 2. We also employed the full wave commercial package CST MICROWAVE
STUDIO[43] to evaluate the scattering response of an innitely periodic array of
gold nano-spheres with the same radius and periodicity based on a single unit cell
with periodic boundary conditions.
Figure 4.8 shows the results obtained for an innitely periodic structure and
those obtained by applying GMT to a nite array and determining the generalized
scattering parameters from Eq. (4.41) and Eq. (4.44). As it can be seen from the
plot, there is excellent agreement between the two results.
Chapter 5
Optimizations of Quasicrystalline
Nanoparticle Arrays
5.1 Introduction
In recent years gold and silver nanoparticle arrays have attracted immense atten-
tion due to their optical properties in the visible and infrared (IR) regions. It
has been shown that sub-wavelength gold and silver nanoparticles display a strong
resonant behavior known as the particle plasmon in the visible and IR spectrum
[5]. When placed in regular 2D periodic arrays, the particle plasmon response can
be further enhanced by coupling to the grating resonance of the structure [6] and
forming a so-called photonic-plasmonic hybrid mode. This plasmonic resonance
makes metal nanoparticle arrays great candidates for wide variety of applications
such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates and biosensors.
In this chapter we study the optical properties of quasicrystalline arrays of
gold nano-spheres. A key challenge in evaluating the EM properties of aperiodic
geometries is the lack of analytical tools. However in the case of spherical arrays
Generalized Multiparticle Mie Theory (GMT) which was introduced in Chapter 4
can be used as a great analytical tool for aperiodic geometries. Furthermore im-
plementing GMT with an incident beam with nite beamwidth which was derived
in Chapter 4 will allow us to dene scattering coecients for aperiodic spherical
arrays.
68
Section 5.2 starts by describing the formation of hybrid modes in periodic
arrays. In Section 5.3 it is shown that hybrid modes also exist in quasicrystalline
arrays and their location can be deduced from the Fourier diraction pattern of
the array. Furthermore, it will be shown that scattering properties of arrays based
on aperiodic tilings can be further enhanced using a perturbation method.
Section 5.4 studies the formation of local hot spots in gold arrays. It was rst
shown that aperiodic arrays of gold nanoparticles have regions with larger local
eld enhancements than periodic arrays [3]. Here we study local eld enhancements
in quasicrystalline arrays and show that local elds can be further enhanced by
optimizing the aperiodic tilings.
5.2 Resonance Response in Periodic Gold Ar-
rays
The optical response of arrays of gold nanospheres can be explained in terms of the
plasmonic response of the spheres (plasmonic resonance) and the grating response
of the array (photonic resonance). The plasmonic resonance is a function of particle
shape and their dielectric function. The photonic resonances can be analyzed as
the Bragg grating modes, which are due to the coherent scattering experienced as
the dielectric wavelength of the incident radiation approaches the periodicity of
the array. The photonic resonance is due to the morphology of the array rather
than constitutive particles and material properties. We start by giving a brief
description of each of these resonances.
5.2.1 Plasmonic Resonance of Gold Spheres
Consider a single sphere of radius R with an index of refraction n
p
embedded
in a dielectric medium with an index of refraction n
M
and illuminated by a z-
propagating x-polarized plane wave such that the electric eld is of the form
E
plane
= xe
ikz
(5.1)
69
where k =
2
is the wave number and is the wavelength in the dielectric medium.

Using Mie theory [26]the scattered elds can be expanded in terms of spherical
harmonics:
E
sca
(, , ) =
n=1
E
n
[ia
n
N
(3)
e1n
(, , ) b
n
M
(3)
o1n
(, , )] (5.2)
where (r, , ) denote the spherical coordinates and = kr. The terms E
n
, N
(3)
e1n
,
and M
(3)
o1n
found in Eq. (5.2) are dened as [26]
N
(3)
e1n
(, , ) =
n(n + 1)h
(1)
n
()
cos P
1
n
(cos ) r+
cos
dP
1
n
(cos )
d
1
_
h
(1)
n
()

sin
dP
1
n
(cos )
d
1
_
h
(1)
n
()

(5.3a)
M
(3)
o1n
(, , ) =
cos
sin
P
1
n
(cos )h
(1)
n
()
sin
dP
1
n
(cos )
d
h
(1)
n
()
(5.3b)
E
n
= i
n
_
(2n + 1)
n(n + 1)
_
(5.3c)
The expansion coecients a
n
and b
n
are obtained by applying the boundary
conditions at the surface of the sphere and are given by [26]
a
n
=

n
(x)
n
(mx) m
n
(x)
n
(mx)
n
(x)
n
(mx) m
n
(x)
n
(mx)
(5.4)
b
n
=
m
n
(x)
n
(mx)
n
(x)
n
(mx)
m
n
(x)
n
(mx)
n
(x)
n
(mx)
(5.5)
where m =
np
n
M
, x = kR and
n
(z) = zj
n
(z) and
n
(z) = zh
(1)
n
(z) are the Riccati-
Bessel functions. The denominators in Eq. (5.4) and Eq. (5.5) can become very
small and in essence form complex numbered poles. At these poles due to the large
value of the expansion coecient the scattered elds exhibit a resonant behavior.
Considering the denominators in Eq. (5.4) and Eq. (5.5), the resonances are
m
n
(x)
n
(x)
=

n
(mx)
n
(mx)
(5.6)
1
m
n
(x)
n
(x)
=

n
(mx)
n
(mx)
(5.7)
70
For very small particles we can use the quasi-static approach which allows us to
approximate the Riccati-Bessel functions using their rst order approximations.
In this case Eq. (5.6) and Eq. (5.7) will simplify to [44]
p
=
n + 1
n

M
(5.8)
p
= 2
M
(5.9)
The resonances resulting from Eq. (5.9) will lead to a trivial solution and are of no
interest. Eq. (5.8) represents the particle plasmon mode of the sphere. The lowest
order (n = 1) of Eq. (5.8) requires a dielectric function with a real part of 2
M
and a vanishing imaginary part.
As an example here we consider a gold sphere with a radius of 20 nm in a
M
= 1.5 (
M
= 2.25). A modied
Drude model [42] is used to represent the dielectric function of gold
() =
2
p
2
+ i
(5.10)
with
= 9,
p
= 13.810
15
s
1
, and = 0.1110
15
s
1
. Figure 5.1 shows the real
and imaginary parts of of the modied Drude model shown in Eq. (5.10) over the
visible range. Figure 5.2 shows the extinction eciency of the sphere evaluated
using Mie theory. As it can be seen the location of resonance corresponds to
() 2
M
.
5.2.2 Photonic Resonance
The photonic resonances can be analyzed as the Bragg grating modes, which are
due to the coherent scattering. In order to achieve coherent scattering, the period-
icity of the structure must approach an integer multiple of the wavelength of the
incident radiation. If denotes the periodicity of the structure, the wavelength
corresponding to the m-th photonic resonance
m
is given by:
m
=

m
m = 1, 2, . . . (5.11)
71
Figure 5.1: Real and imaginary parts of the gold dielectric function according to
Eq. (5.10).
Generally the rst order resonance (m = 1) is strongest one since there is consid-
erable diraction at higher orders. As an example the the scattering response of a
periodic array of 121 dielectric spheres of radius 50 nm and periodicity of = 550
Figure 5.2: Extinction eciency of a gold sphere with a radius of 20 nm in a
M
= 1.5.
72
nm is considered. It is assumed that the spheres are loss-less and dispersion-less
with an index of refraction of n
p
= 3. A linearly polarized plane wave is incident
on the array. The scattering properties of this array can be evaluated using GMT
method with an incident plane wave which was introduced in Section 4.2. The
extinction eciency of the array is shown in Figure 5.3. As it can be seen from the
plot as the incident wavelength approaches the lattice constant around 550 nm a
resonance is observed.
Figure 5.3: Extinction eciency of a periodic array of 121 dielectric spheres (n
p
=
3) of radius 50 nm and periodicity of = 550 nm with a normally incident plane
wave.
5.2.3 Hybrid Resonance
The optical properties of gold nanoparticle arrays can be explained in terms of the
plasmonic resonance and the photonic resonance. Figure 5.4 shows the extinction
eciency a periodic array of 100 gold spheres of radius 80 nm and periodicity of
= 600 nm. As it can be seen from the plot the spectrum displays two distinct
resonances. The rst resonance in the 450 nm region is due to the plasmonic
resonance of gold and the second resonance in the 600 nm region is the photonic
resonance of the array.
73
Figure 5.4: Extinction eciency of a periodic array of 100 gold spheres of radius
80 nm and periodicity of = 600 nm.
Figure 5.5 shows the extinction eciency for three periodic array of 100 gold
spheres of radius 80 nm and dierent periodicities as indicated in the plot. As
it can be seen for the larger lattice constant of 600 nm plasmonic and photonic
resonances are distinct. Of particular interest are the phenomena that occur when
the photonic and plasmonic resonances are in close proximity. This allows for
the plasmonic elds to radiate in the plane of the array, which leads to stronger
coupling and further resonance enhancement. Subsequently, a so-called photonic-
plasmonic hybrid mode is excited [6]. The formation of the hybrid mode can be
clearly identied in Figure 5.4 for lattice constants of 400 nm and 500 nm where
instead of two distinct resonances, one enhanced hybrid resonance is formed. In
periodic structures these hybrid modes usually have a narrow bandwidth due to
the inherently narrowband nature of the photonic resonance.
5.3 Resonance Response in Quasicrystalline Gold
Arrays
Optical properties of aperiodic gold nanoparticle arrays where rst considered in
Ref.[24]. However they only considered aperiodic geometries and no quasicrys-
74
Figure 5.5: Extinction eciency for four periodic arrays of 100 gold spheres of
radius 80 nm with periodicities of 400 nm, 500 nm, 600 nm.
talline formations were studied. Quasicrystals in essence possess multiple photonic
resonances due to specic real-space distances in the structure.
An intuitive approach to study the photonic resonances of quasicrystals is by
analyzing their Fourier diraction pattern which was introduced in Chapter 2. The
discrete peaks in the diraction pattern of quasicrystals can be associated with
reciprocal vectors F that satisfy exp (iF R) = 1 for apertures having coordinates
R [45]. The reciprocal vectors can be indexed according to their distance from the
origin. These distanced correspond directly and are inversely proportional to half
of specic distances in the structure [F
i
[
2
d
i
.
As an example here we consider a Penrose quasicrystal. The Penrose aperiodic
tiling was introduced in Chapter 2. It possess 5-fold rotational symmetry and
can be generated from two triangular prototiles. Alternatively, Penrose tiling can
be generated by placing narrow (vertex angles /5 and 4/5) and wide (vertex
angles 2/5 and 3/5) rhombi tiles with equal sides based on specic matching
rules [16]. Figure 5.6 shows the two prototiles of the Penrose tiling along with
three marked distances which are the large diagonal of the narrow rhombus (d
1
),
the large diagonal of the wide rhombus (d
2
) and d
3
which denotes the side of both
rhombi. Figure 5.7 shows a segment of the Penrose quasicrystals composed of the
narrow and wide rhombi shown in Figure 5.6. As it was discussed in Chapter 2
an interesting property of the Penrose tiling is that dierent distances between
75
Figure 5.6: Narrow (vertex angles /5 and 4/5) and wide (vertex angles 2/5
and 3/5) rhombi prototiles of Penrose tiling. The three marked distances which
are the large diagonal of the narrow rhombus (d
1
), the large diagonal of the wide
rhombus (d
2
) and d
3
which denotes the side of both rhombi.
elements can be expressed in terms of , the golden ration ( = (1 +
5)/2). It
can be shown that
d
1
4
2
=
d
2
=
d
3
1
(5.12)
Fig. 5.8 shows the Fourier diraction pattern of the Penrose quasicrystal. The
rst three reciprocal vectors have been indexed according to their distance from the
origin. Due to the 5-fold rotational symmetry of diraction pattern, the following
basis for the reciprocal vector space can be dened [46]
e
i
=
_
cos
(i 1)
5
, sin
(i 1)
5
_
, i = 1, . . . , 5 (5.13)
All reciprocal vectors can be written as an integer linear combination of e
i
. For
F
1
, F
2
, and F
3
, we have
F
1
= e
2
, F
2
= e
2
+e
5
, F
3
= e
4
+e
5
(5.14)
76
Figure 5.7: A segment of the Penrose quasicrystals composed of the narrow and
wide rhombi and the corresponding distances d
1
, d
2
, and d
3
from Figure 5.6.
From Eq. (5.14) it can be easily veried that
[F
1
[
d
1
=
[F
2
[
d
2
=
[F
3
[
d
3
(5.15)
Thus the rst three reciprocal vectors correspond to aperture spacings
d
1
2
,
d
2
2
, and
d
3
2
. These three values also correspond to the lowest order photonic resonances
of the quasicrystal. Thus if denotes the wavelength of the incident eld in the
medium, the lowest order photonic resonance occurs as
d
1
2
and the next
photonic resonance occurs as as
d
2
2
and so on. In general the wavelength
corresponding to the m-th photonic resonance
m
of a quasicrystal is given by:
m
=
d
m
2
m = 1, 2, . . . (5.16)
77
In periodic structures all spacings are integer multiples of each other, and thus
photonic resonances are far apart. The same is not true for quasicrystals. For
example in the case of Penrose quasicrystal which was just analyzed, using the
results from Eq. (5.12) and Eq. (5.16), the rst two resonances are roughly related
by
2
1.17
1
.
Figure 5.8: Diraction pattern of Penrose quasicrystal with the rst three recip-
rocal vectors displayed.
This novel property of quasicrystals which allows them to have several photonic
resonances in close proximity can be particularly useful for gold nano-spherical
arrays. As it was mentioned, in periodic arrays the hybrid mode is a narrow band
phenomenon due to the inherently narrowband nature of the photonic resonance.
On the contrary, hybrid modes in aperiodic structures can have more desirable
properties because they possess multiple resonances that if designed properly can
create hybrid mode coupling over a relatively wide bandwidth.
To demonstrate this, we consider two aperiodic arrays of gold nano-spheres
based on Penrose tilings. Both arrays consist of 466 gold nano-spheres with a
78
Figure 5.9: Scattering response of two nite aperiodic Penrose gold arrays with
dierent tile sides (540 nm, 630 nm) obtained using GMT with a nite incident
beamwidth produced by a circular aperture of radius a = 2 placed at a distance
of 17 m from the array. Values of T and R were calculated from Eq. (4.41) and
Eq. (4.44) respectively.
diameter of 160 nm. For the rst array, we set the tile side (s) to 540 nm. As a
result we would expect the two resonances to occur roughly around 440 nm and
515 nm region. In the case of the second array we set the tile side (s) to 630 nm
for which we would expect resonances around 510 nm and 600 nm. Figure 5.9
shows the reectance and transmittance values calculated for both arrays based
on Eq. (4.41) and Eq. (4.44) which were derived in Chapter 4. Considering the
rst array (s = 540 nm), the rst resonance is clearly distinguishable around =
550 nm. This resonance is further enhanced since it is in the plasmonic region of
gold and can form a photonic-plasmonic hybrid mode. The second resonance is
much weaker around = 450 nm since it is not in the plasmonic region of the gold.
The second array (s = 630 nm) displays much more interesting properties. Even
though it has a smaller lling factor than the rst array, since both resonances are
in the plasmonic region of gold, they are both enhanced and in essence we observe
two hybrid modes.
79
5.3.1 Optimization
The performance of the aperiodic arrays can be further enhanced by a perturbation
method similar to what was done for antenna arrays based on aperiodic tilings in
Chapter 3. The main dierence is that in the case of antenna arrays, array factor
calculations are fairly fast. Furthermore array factor calculations do not require
large amounts of memory which allows for the GA to be parallelized. As a result
using a GA algorithm is a suitable method to optimize the location of perturbation
points, since the cost function evaluations are not too computationally expensive.
The same is not true for GMT calculations. The amount of memory required
for an array of N
p
spheres using VSWF expansions with N
max
terms is of the
order N
2
p
N
3
max
+ N
4
max
. Also the resulting linear systems are very large and have
to be solved via iterative methods. Using GA for such cost functions is not a
feasible option since cost function evaluations tend to be intensely computationally
expensive and time consuming. As a result a more analytical approach should be
utilized to optimize the nano-spherical arrays based on aperiodic tilings.
The Danzer tiling was introduced in Chapter 2. The prototile set the tiling is
composed of three triangles shown in Figure 5.10 where = /7 and a, b, and c
are related by the law of sines
a
sin
=
b
sin 2
=
c
sin 4
(5.17)
Figure 5.11 shows the resulting structure after two iteration of ination and
substitution is applied to type III prototile with elements placed at vertices. As it
can be seen from Figure 5.11 the largest element spacing in the array correspond
to c and a corresponds to the minimum spacing between the spheres. Thus the
lowest order photonic resonance should occur at = c/2.
Figure 5.12 shows the extinction eciency of three quasicrystalline nano-
spherical array based on Danzer tiling. All three arrays consist of 349 gold spheres
with a radius of 80 nm. However the prototiles have been scaled such that the
values for c/2 are 420 nm, 480 nm, and 560 nm as indicated in the plot. The plas-
monic region region of the gold has been highlighted in the plot. The resonance
response for the Danzer array with
c
2
= 560 nm is much stronger since photonic
resonance is in the plasmonic region and hence a hybrid mode is formed.
80
Figure 5.11: Danzer tiling generated after two iteration applied to prototile type
III with elements placed at vertices.
81
Figure 5.12: Extinction eciency for three Danzer of 349 gold spheres of radius 80
nm with c/2 values of 420 nm, 480 nm, 560 nm. The plasmonic region of gold is
highlighted.
Thus just by proper scaling, the performance of the array can be considerably
improved. The performance of the the quasicrystalline array can be further en-
hanced by introducing additional elements inside prototiles. However one issue
that must be taken into account is that the perturbation should not signicantly
alter the minimum spacing of the tiling since the minimum spacing often represents
a fabrication constraint.
A close inspection of Danzer tiling reveals that it is possible to place an ad-
ditional element in the circumcenter of type III prototile without disturbing the
minimum spacing of the tiling. As a result the density of the arrays goes up by
roughly 50%. Figure 5.13 shows a segment of the Danzer tiling with additional
elements placed at the circumcenter of type III prototile. Figure 5.14 shows the
extinction coecients of the native and optimized Danzer arrays, incident with a
plane wave. Both arrays consists of gold spheres of radius 80 nm and have been
scaled such that
c
2
= 560 nm. The native array is composed of 349 spheres and the
optimized array is composed of 521 spheres. It is important to note even though
the number of spheres of the optimized array is roughly 50% higher than the native
array, the resonance is almost twice as strong. Hence the perturbation has actually
caused a lot more coupling in the array.
82
Figure 5.13: A segment of an optimized Danzer tiling with additional elements
placed at the circumcenter of type III prototile.
Figure 5.15 shows the extinction coecient (E) of the same two array dened
as E = 1 T. These results are obtained using the modied GMT method which
was developed Chapter 4 based on an incident beam with nite beamwidth. As it
can be seen, the results are consistent with those in Figure 5.14 and these set of
results can be qualitatively compared with experimental measurements.
5.4 Local Field Enhancements in Quasicrystalline
Gold Arrays
In recent years there has been a wide variety of applications for Surface-Enhanced
Raman Scattering (SERS) techniques in rapid and label-free chemical and bio-
logical sensing applications[47]. While the underlying physical phenomena is not
completely understood, it has been shown that SERS is mainly driven by the en-
hanced electromagnetic elds on metal surfaces. In particular it has shown that
83
Figure 5.14: Extinction eciency for native Danzer array (349 spheres) and the
optimized Danzer array (521 spheres). Both arrays have been scaled such that
c
2
= 560 nm.
Figure 5.15: Extinction coecient (E = 1T) for native Danzer and the optimized
Danzer arrays evaluated using GMT method with a nite beamwidth. Both arrays
have been scaled such that
c
2
= 560 nm.
84
Raman enhancement F
SERS
is roughly proportional to the fourth power of local
eld enhancement:
F
SERS

_
[E
loc
[
[E
inc
[
_
4
(5.18)
where E
loc
and E
inc
denote the local and the incident elds respectively. Local eld
enhancements in aperiodic arrays were considered in [3]; however these structures
were not truly planar arrays. Rather they were linear aperiodic arrays extended
into two dimensions. As a result they lacked any higher order rotational symme-
tries. We start by considering periodic, Penrose, Danzer and Ammann-Beenker
(A-B) arrays.
For all the arrays considered in this section gold nanospheres with a radius of 80
nm are assumed. The array is placed in the xy-plane and the incident electric eld
is linearly polarized along the x axis with a magnitude of 1 V/m. The incident
radiation has a free space wavelength of 550 nm. Gold has a complex index of
refraction of n = 0.35 + 2.4j at the operating wavelength. The minimum surface
to surface separation between spheres is 20 nm which corresponds to a center to
center separation of 180 nm. The number of spheres for all the arrays are in the
225-251 range, however due to the fact that they have dierent lling factors, the
total area of the array will vary in each case. Table 5.1 displays the properties
of the four array. The terms d
min
, d
max
and d
avg
correspond to the minimum,
maximum and the average surface to surface distance. The number of elements in
each array is denoted by N and D denotes relative density which assigns a value
of unity to the periodic array since it has the highest density.
Table 5.1: Geometrical properties of nano-spherical arrays.
Array N d
min
(nm) d
max
(nm) d
avg
(nm) D
Periodic 225 20 20 20 1
Penrose 251 20 135 24 0.78
Danzer 248 20 244 46 0.46
A-B 225 20 75 34 0.72
Figure 5.16 shows the local elds for the periodic array. As mentioned before,
this formation has the highest lling factor and provides a maximum local eld
intensity of 7.24 V/m. Figure 5.17 shows the local elds for an aperiodic Penrose
85
Figure 5.16: Local elds (V/m) for a periodic array of 225 gold nanospheres with
minimum surface to surface distance of 20 nm.
array. From the array geometry it can be observed that this formation has a 5-fold
rotational symmetry and provides a maximum local eld intensity of 9.5 V/m.
Figure 5.18 shows the local elds for an aperiodic Danzer array. This array has
a 7-fold rotational symmetry and provides a maximum local eld intensity of 13.6
V/m, while Figure 5.19 shows the local elds for an aperiodic Ammann-Beenker
array with 8-fold rotational symmetry. The maximum local eld intensity for this
array is 9.55 V/m.
86
Figure 5.17: Local elds (V/m) for a Penrose array of 251 gold nanospheres with
Figure 5.18: Local elds (V/m) for a Danzer array of 248 gold nanospheres with
87
Figure 5.19: Local elds (V/m) for an A-B array of 225 gold nanospheres with
Chapter 6
Optical Mirrors Based on
Metamaterial Coatings
6.1 Introduction
Resonant reection in subwavelength gratings were rst identied and studied in
early 1990s [48]. With appropriate patterning, such periodic gratings composed of a
single dielectric layer could perform as well as 25-40 layer dielectric Bragg reectors
[49]. In addition to being considerably more compact than dielectric stacks, these
structures when properly designed provide new optical features such as polarization
and phase control [50, 51, 52, 53]. Resonance typically occurs when the rst order
diracted mode is a guided mode supported by the grating and hence trapped.
The guided mode is then reradiated into zeroth order mode where it will interfere
with the incident eld to create a pronounced reection [48]. By exploring 1D/2D
periodic nanostructures, coupling with external illumination can be controlled to
produce complex polarization sensitive or insensitive resonance line shapes that
can be used to create a variety of passive optical elements, including mirrors and
lters.
Traditionally, the optical response of planar subwavelength periodic dielectric
nanostructures has been analyzed by calculating the dispersion of the supported
guided mode resonances [54]. In these devices, the response is strongly dependent
on the optical properties of all of the dielectric materials as well as the nanostruc-
89
ture unit cell geometry and dimensions [55]. Despite this dependence, the com-
plexity of designing and fabricating the structures has constrained most earlier
guided mode devices to extremely simple pillar and hole geometries, which places
limits on their optical properties [12]. Recently, nature-inspired design methods
have been used to optimize more sophisticated periodic dielectric nanostructure
geometries that produce advanced user-specied scattering properties arising from
the guided modes [56]. By properly tailoring the scattering parameters with con-
trolled scattering phases and amplitudes, this design approach can be extended to
engineer the eective refractive index and impedance of the subwavelength dielec-
tric nanostructure, which greatly increases the optical functionalities that can be
achieved.
In this chapter we treat the periodic gratings as metamaterial structures and
apply eective medium theory to guide the design process. Our goal is to design
a lter with a near-perfect reection band (i.e. a near-perfect optical mirror)
centered at the mid-IR band of 3.3 m. We start by deriving the appropriate optical
properties that will satisfy the desired perfect mirror condition. The structure of
the metamaterial grating is optimized using a single point cross-over binary genetic
algorithm (GA) [23]. The scattering parameters of the structures are evaluated
using a periodic nite-element boundary-integral (PFEBI) code. The scattering
parameters are then employed to derive the eective parameters using a suitable
inversion algorithm. The metamaterial lter designed here consists of a thin layer
of amorphous silicon (a-Si) with a doubly-periodic array of air holes inserted into
it. The grating is supported by a 500 m layer of fused silica. Since the thickness
of the supporting layer is much larger that the wavelength of interest, it can be
treated as a semi-innite half-space. Once the structure was optimized, it was
fabricated and measurements were made of its reection/transmission properties.
6.2 Eective Parameters
Our objective is to obtain the set of eective material properties for a dielectric
slab which will highly reective. For a dielectric slab of thickness l with an index of
refraction n and an impedance , the reection coecient R and the transmission
coecient T for normal incidence radiation with free-space wavelength
0
are given
90
by:
R =
jZ sin(nk
0
l)
j sin(nk
0
l)
Z
2 cos(nk
0
l) + jZ sin(nk
0
l) +
j sin(nk
0
l)
Z
(6.1)
T =
2
2 cos(nk
0
l) + jZ sin(nk
0
l) +
j sin(nk
0
l)
Z
(6.2)
where Z =

0
is the normalized impedance of the slab with respect to the free-
space impedance (
0
) and k
0
=
2
0
is the free-space wavenumber. To achieve unity
reection, the numerator and the denominator in Eq. (6.1) should be of equal
magnitude. This requirement can be satised under two extreme cases:
Perfect electric conductor (PEC): Z 0 R 1
Perfect magnetic conductor (PMC): Z R 1
Recently all dielectric metamaterials with PEC and PMC properties based on
cylindrical and spherical elements were proposed [57]. However the proposed ge-
ometries were multilayer structures and the high reection was due to the photonic
bang-gap of the structure. As a result, the nal structure was relatively thick. Here,
we derive and apply an alternative set of conditions that can be realized using a
thin metamaterial coating to fabricate a perfect dielectric mirror.
We begin by considering a complex index of refraction n = n
+jn
with near-
zero real part and large imaginary part (n
0 , [n
[ 0). The trigonometric

functions for complex arguments are dened as [15]:
sin(x + jy) = sin x cosh y + j cos x sinh y
cos(x + jy) = cos x cosh y j sin x sinh y (6.3)
where sinh and cosh are the hyperbolic sine and cosine functions. Using our as-
sumption n
0 , [n
[ 0, it can be shown that:

sin(nk
0
l) sin(jk
0
ln
) = j sinh(k
0
ln
)
cos(nk
0
l) cos(jk
0
ln
) = cosh(k
0
ln
) (6.4)
91
Furthermore for [n
[ 0, following approximation is valid:

cosh(k
0
ln
) sinh(k
0
ln
) (6.5)
Thus substituting the results from Eq. (6.4) and Eq. (6.5) into Eq. (6.1) we have
R =
sinh(k
0
ln
)
_
Z
1
Z
_
2 cosh(k
0
ln
) sinh(k
0
ln
)
_
Z +
1
Z
_ =
sinh(k
0
ln
)
_
Z
1
Z
_
sinh(k
0
ln
)
_
2 + Z +
1
Z
_ (6.6)
In order to have a high reection surface we must have [R[ 1. Applying this
condition to Eq. (6.6) we arrive at
Z
1
Z
2 + Z +
1
Z
=
[Z 1[
[Z + 1[
= 1 (6.7)
At this point it is helpful to rewrite Eq. (6.7) with the normalized impedance Z
expressed in terms of its real and imaginary parts as
[Z 1[
[Z + 1[
=
[Z
r
+ jZ
i
1[
[Z
r
+ jZ
i
+ 1[
= 1 (6.8)
where Z
r
and Z
i
denote the real and imaginary parts of the normalized impedance,
respectively. A close inspection of Eq. (6.8) reveals that for a purely imaginary
normalized impedance (Z
r
0), the numerator and the denominator have equal
magnitudes and [R[ 1. Thus, a thin near zero refractive index dielectric coating
with a large extinction coecient (i.e., an evanescent wave condition) and a purely
imaginary impedance will result in high reection. These three requirements can
also be expressed as:
1(n) 0 (6.9a)
(n) (6.9b)
1(Z) 0 (6.9c)
92
6.3 Design Process
The metamaterial coating considered here is composed of a doubly periodic a-Si
nanostructure grating with a unit cell period(p) that is small enough to suppress
higher order diraction modes. The targeted wavelength is 3.3 m and our objec-
tive is to obtain a reectance of at least 98%. Denoting the indices of refraction for
half-spaces above and below the structure n
inc
and n
ext
respectively, the condition
for zero-th order reection and transmission for a normally incident plane wave is:
p < min
_

0
n
inc
,

0
n
ext
_
(6.10)
For design optimization, the unit cell is divided into a 16 16 grid of pixels
assigned with the value of either 1 for the high-index a-Si features or 0 the low-index
air regions. To mitigate polarization sensitivity, eight-fold rotational symmetry is
enforced. Along with the geometry of the unit cell, the unit cell period, and a-
Si layer thickness are also encoded into a binary string to completely describe
the metamaterial structure. The scattering parameters of each candidate design
are calculated using a full-wave periodic nite-element boundary-integral (PFEBI)
method [58], and the corresponding eective parameters (n, Z) are retrieved using
an established inversion algorithm [59]:
Z =
(1 + R)
2
T
2
(1 R)
2
T
2
(6.11a)
e
jnk
0
l
= X j
1 X
2
, X =
1
2T(1 R
2
+ T
2
)
(6.11b)
where the sign ambiguities are resolved by enforcing the conditions 1(Z) 0 and
(n) 0.
The grating is optimized via a single point crossover binary GA. GAs are very
well established methods for performing global optimization of electromagnetic
problems. They are based on evolutionary principles and natural selection. A
brief introduction of GA is included in Appendix A. For a more complete descrip-
tion of GAs and their applications in electromagnetics, the reader is referred to
reference [23]. Dening a proper cost function is one of the most essential steps in
93
implementing a GA. The metamaterial conditions shown in Eq. (6.9) for perfect
reection are embodied in the following cost function:
Cost = [1(n)[ +[1(Z)[ [(n)[ (6.12)
Once the cost function has been properly dened GA can proceed to minimize
it. As mentioned previously, eight-fold rotational symmetry is enforced on the
structure, thus the pixelated geometry can be described using 36 bits. We use
8 bit discretization for the unit cell period and the a-Si layer thickness. Hence
the complete geometry of the structure is encoded in 52 bits. Furthermore we
incorporated two fabrication constraints into our GA to eliminate geometries which
include single a-Si pixels or diagonally connected a-Si pixels by assigning them large
costs.
Figure 6.1 illustrates one unit cell of the GA optimized wavelength-selective di-
electric ZIM mirror design. When replicated in 2D, this pattern results in an array
of isolated a-Si blocks surrounded by an interconnected a-Si dielectric structure.
The a-Si layer thickness is t = 468 nm and the unit cell period is p = 2.05 m,
which gives a pixel dimension of 125 nm. At the target 3.3 m free-space op-
erating wavelength the zero-th order scattering condition from Eq. (6.10) is also
satised (n
inc
= n
ext
= 1). The simulated reection and transmission coecients
for the structure are shown plotted in Figure 6.2. Figure 6.3 and Figure 6.4 show
the extracted index of refraction (real and imaginary parts) and the normalized
impedance respectively. As it can be seen from the plots of the eective parame-
ters near the targeted region ( 90 THz) all the conditions specied in Eq. (6.9)
are satised. The slab has a purely imaginary index of refraction as well as a
purely imaginary impedance and the resonance region corresponds to the largest
value for the imaginary part of the index of refraction.The values for the complex
refractive index and normalized impedance at
0
= 3.3 m are n = 0.072 5.41j
and Z = 0.001 + 0.794j, which satisfy the metamaterial conditions for a perfect
dielectric mirror.
Once the index of refraction and the normalized impedance have been cal-
culated, then the relative permittivity and permeability can be determined from
the following simple relations
r
= n/Z and
r
= nZ respectively. Figure 6.5
94
Figure 6.1: The unit cell structure of the optimized metamaterial grating with
p = 2.05 m and t = 468 nm.
and Figure 6.6 show the eective permittivity and permeability of the lossy ZIM
respectively. Figure 6.7 shows the electric eld distributions in the optimized
structure at the targeted wavelength of
0
= 3.3 m at the xy-plane. It is assumed
that the structure lies in the xy-plane with a x-polarized plane wave normally
incident upon it. Figure 6.7a shows the eld distributions in the xy-plane at the
top of the structure. Figure 6.7b shows the eld structures in the xy-plane in the
95
Figure 6.2: Simulated reection and transmission coecients of the optimized
metamaterial structure in free space.
Figure 6.3: Eective index of refraction for the optimized metamaterial mirror.
96
Figure 6.4: Eective normalized impedance for the optimized metamaterial mirror.
Figure 6.5: Eective permittivity for the optimized metamaterial mirror.
middle of the structure. Figure 6.8a and Figure 6.8b show the eld distributions
looking sideways in the yz-plane at two dierent values of x. The relative values of
x are shown with a red line in the unit cell of the structure in the lower left hand
corner of these two gures. As it can be seen from all four gures elds are much
97
Figure 6.6: Eective permeability for the optimized metamaterial mirror.
(a) xy-plane on the top of the struc-
ture.
(b) xy-plane in the middle of the
structure.
Figure 6.7: Electric eld distributions for the optimized structure at resonance
(
0
= 3.3 m) in the xy-plane.
stronger in low dielectric (air) regions which conrms that the optimized structure
displays guided mode resonance.
98
(a) yz-plane with relative value of x
in the unit cell shown with the red
line in the lower left hand corner of
the gure.
(b) yz-plane with relative value of x
in the unit cell shown with the red
line in the lower left hand corner of
the gure.
Figure 6.8: Electric eld distributions for the optimized structure at resonance
(
0
= 3.3 m) in the yz-plane.
6.4 Fabrication and Measurements
The optimized mirror structure has isolated a-Si blocks which are surrounded by
air holes, making the fabrication of a free-standing structure infeasible. In practical
applications, however, the metamaterial mirror would be used as a coating. Hence,
we included a 500 m thick fused silica substrate as a supportive layer that is
transparent throughout the targeted range of wave-lengths. Replacing fused silica
for air will not largely aect the performance of the optimized structure since there
is a large contrast between the dielectric constants of fused silica and a-Si which
allows for the connement of elds in the grating and formation of guided mode
resonance. We would however expect a slight shift in the location of the resonance.
Fabrication started with the deposition of a 468 nm thick a-Si layer on a cleaned
fused silica substrate using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)
system (Applied Materials P-5000 cluster). Following E-beam exposure (Leica
EBPG5 HR & Vistec EBPG 5000+ HR) and development of the resist (Nippon
Zeon ZEP 520A), a 60 nm Cr layer was then evaporated and lifted o to form
an etching mask. The pattern was transferred into the a-Si layer to dene air
holes by highly anisotropic RIE (Tegal 6540) using chlorine (Cl
2
) and argon (Ar).
Finally, the Cr mask layer was wet-etched and the samples were then ready for
characterization. The electron micrograph of the fabricated sample is shown in
Figure 6.9 with highly anisotropic sidewalls.
For validating the performance of the mirror, two dierent sized samples were
99
prepared. First, a 4 4 mm
2
sample was fabricated using the above-mentioned
process steps for characterization of the scattering parameters, and then another
fabrication of a 1 1 in.
2
sample was conducted for uniformity mapping mea-
surements. To account for the loading eect of the substrate, another numerical
simulation was performed with the measured dispersive optical properties of fused
silica, which induced a slight reection peak shift from 3.33 m to 3.47 m as shown
in Figure 6.10. Despite this minor shift, the prole of the resonance was main-
tained, and the peak reection was further enhanced from 0.997 to 0.999 due to
the fused silica substrate.
Figure 6.9: FESEM image of the fabricated metamaterial mirror with an inset of
a magnied unit cell.
The angular sensitivity of the fabricated mirror sample was also tested. In
many practical applications for lters and mirrors, angular tolerance as well as po-
larization insensitivity is preferred for operation when illuminated by an unpolar-
ized light beam with a non-negligible divergence. As expected from the eight-fold
symmetry of the unit cell geometry, the spectral response of this mirror is nearly in-
100
Figure 6.10: Simulated and measured transmission and reection spectra of 4
4 mm
2
sample.
dependent of the incident wave polarization. Further experiments showed that this
mirror also can be utilized up to 10
incidence without a noticeable degradation

in reection eciency (> 0.98%) and shift of resonance position (< 6%).
6.5 Conclusion
In conclusion, a thin high-eciency metamaterial mirror coating was successfully
synthesized at the mid-IR wavelength of 3.3 m based on an eective medium
design approach. It was demonstrated that the derived metamaterial conditions
could be exploited to achieve high reection originating from a guided mode reso-
nance. The optimized structure was fabricated in large scale and characterized to
show good agreement with the theoretical predictions, thereby demonstrating that
the metamaterial mirror could be used in practical coating applications. We have
shown that a metamaterial-based approach can be used to design optical coatings
which, when coupled to a suitable GA optimization scheme, provides a more gen-
eral and robust alternative to conventional methods based on direct manipulation
101
of guided mode resonances.
Chapter 7
Transmission Gratings Based on
Ecient Optimization of
Polynomials
7.1 Introduction
Recently there has been considerable interest in utilizing subwavelength periodic
gratings to generate surfaces with wideband properties for solar cell applications
[60, 61, 62]. These gratings are usually placed on top of photovoltaic cells and thus
are required to be highly transmissive over a wide eld of view and be broadband.
In [60] an optimized triangular grating was utilized to generate large transmission
values over a wide bandwidth; however only normal incident radiation was con-
sidered. In [63]aperiodic metal-dielectric stacks were considered. The resulting
structure did provide high transmission with a wide angular tolerance; however
the bandwidth was rather narrow.
One of the recent approaches that has been investigated is to employ metallic
gratings. Using this method absorption is enhanced as a result of surface plasmons
which are supported by the metallic gratings [64]. While this method does provide
a high transmission value, the losses in metals which tend to be large in the visible
range can reduce the eciency of the solar cells. As a consequence it has been
proposed that dielectric gratings might be more suitable for this purpose [65].
103
A sawtooth shaped grating made of silicon carbide was considered in [66]. The
structure was shown to provide a good angular response, however the average
absorption was only about 66%.
Traditional transmission lters are usually comprised of triangular, sinusoidal,
or rectangular gratings [67]. The specic dimensions need to be optimized ac-
cording to the design objectives. However, these basic shapes are too limited and
often they are not sucient to meet challenging design specications. One way to
overcome these limitations is to use gratings with more complicated side-wall pro-
les. Basically the side-wall is discretized into a certain number of layers of equal
thickness and the width of each layer is then optimized to meet the design goals.
This will greatly increase the degrees of freedom in the design process. However
there are two problems associated with this approach.
First, depending on the number of discretized layers the associated number of
variables that require optimization can be rather large and dicult to manage.
Secondly since the width of each layer is optimized separately there might be
large discontinuities between neighboring layers that can lead to designs that are
impractical to fabricate.
In this chapter, we propose a computationally ecient genetic algorithm (GA)
strategy based on optimizing the roots of a polynomial. This method has the ad-
vantage of only requiring that a relatively small number of variables be optimized
while at the same time allowing for more complex side-wall proles to be achieved.
It also overcomes the issue of discontinuity between neighboring layers since poly-
nomials are continuous functions. Using this method a lter is designed to provide
mean transmittance values larger than 95% over the visible band and with a eld
of view of 120
. The lter we designed consists of a layer of periodic zinc sulde

(ZnS) and it is supported by a semi-innite layer of the same material (ZnS). ZnS
was used due to its low loss in the visible range of the spectrum.
7.2 Design Process
As mentioned earlier, we attempt to shape the side-wall proles of the grating
based on an optimized polynomial. An n-th degree polynomial with real roots can
104
be represented as:
P
n
(x) = (x x
1
) (x x
2
) . . . (x x
n
) , x
1
, . . . , x
n
R (7.1)
In order to simplify the process, it is further assumed that all the roots are
between 0 and 1. To create the prole, the polynomial is normalized and sampled
according to fabrication constraints imposed on the height and width of the ridges
in the structure. To create the prole, the polynomial is normalized and sampled
according to fabrication constraints imposed on the height and width of the ridges
in the structure. Figures 7.1 and 7.2 show an example of this process for a fourth
degree polynomial. Figure 7.1 shows the shape of the forth degree polynomial and
Figure 7.1 shows the structure of the resulting side-wall.
Figure 7.1: A fourth degree polynomial with roots in [0, 1].
Hence in order to nd the best choice for the polynomial, all the roots must
be optimized. In addition, the periodicity of the structure and its height are also
included in the optimization. There is also the question of what the degree of
the polynomial should be. Two dierent approaches can be taken regarding the
degree of the polynomial. First, the degree of the polynomial can be xed. In
this case there will be a total of n + 2 variables that require optimization. In the
second approach, a range (minimum and maximum value) can be specied for the
105
Figure 7.2: Resulting side-wall prole from the polynomial in Figure 7.1.
degree of the polynomial and then it is left to the optimizer to rst determine the
optimal degree of the polynomial and then the optimal choice for the corresponding
roots. For the second approach there will be a total of n+3 variables that require
optimization. For our problem we used the second approach and allowed the degree
of the polynomial to be in the 3 6 range.
As mentioned earlier the design variables are optimized by a GA. The GA is a
global optimization strategy that is based on the evolutionary principles of natural
selection and mutation. Their use in electromagnetic optimization problems is well
established. A brief introduction of GA is included in Appendix A. For a more
complete description of GAs and their applications in electromagnetics, the reader
is referred to reference [23].
106
7.3 Results
As mentioned earlier our targeted range is the visible band of the spectrum which
covers 400 770 THz (0.39 m< < 0.75 m). Also it was required that the
structure provide a high transmission for a FOV of 120
(60
< < 60
). It
is important to mention that for the current design only one polarization was
considered. It is assumed that the electric eld of the incident wave is polarized
along the periodicity of the grating (TM). Based on the above specications, the
following cost function was dened:
F =
,f
(1 [T
,f
[)
2
= 0, 15
, 30
, 45
, 60
, f = 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 750THz (7.2)

where T
,f
is the transmission coecient at frequency f and incident angle of .
The summation in Eq. (7.2) contains a total of 24 terms.
A single cross-over binary GA was used to minimize the cost function dened
in Eq. (7.2). For each design candidate the scattering parameters were calculated
using a periodic nite-element boundary-integral (PFEBI) code [58]. Once the
scattering parameters have been determined, the cost function can be evaluated
and the GA will proceed.
The lter we designed consists of a layer of periodic zinc sulde (ZnS) and it is
supported by a semi-innite layer of the same material (ZnS). ZnS was used due
to its low loss in the visible range of the spectrum. Figure 7.3 shows the relative
permittivity of ZnS over the visible range [68].
Figure 7.4 shows a unit cell of the optimized structure. The optimized structure
has a periodicity of 113 nm and a thickness of 77 nm. Figure 7.5 shows several
periods of the optimized grating. Figure 7.6 shows the transmittance of the grating
for a TM polarized plane wave over the visible band for dierent angles of incidence.
Table 7.1 shows the tabulated mean transmittance values for dierent incidence
angles over the visible band. The average transmittance for all angles of incidence
up to 60
is greater than 95%.

107
Figure 7.3: Relative permittivity of ZnS over the visible range.
Figure 7.4: Unit cell of the optimized grating.
108
Figure 7.5: Four periods of the optimized grating structure.
Figure 7.6: Transmittance values for the optimized grating corresponding to dif-
ferent values of incident TM radiation.
7.4 Conclusion
A new method for designing all-dielectric gratings with high transmission, broad
bandwidth and wide FOV was introduced. The method was based on shaping
the side-wall proles of the gratings according to polynomial functions. It was
demonstrated that by using this method it is possible to generate gratings with
complicated side-wall proles while using a relatively small number of variables.
The roots and degree of the polynomial along with dimensions of the grating
109
Table 7.1: Mean transmittance values for dierent incidence angles over the visible
band.
Angle of Incidence (degrees) Mean Transmittance
0 98%
10 98.1%
20 98.4%
30 98.7%
40 98.9%
50 98.4%
60 96%
(periodicity and height) were optimized to meet a specic set of design goals. A
GA was employed along with a suitable cost function in order to optimize the
design parameters.
To illustrate the new design methodology, a design example was considered for
a grating (lter) that provides mean transmittance values greater than 95% with
a FOV of 120
over the entire visible band.

Appendix A
Genetic Algorithms
A.1 Introduction
Traditional optimization methods such as Newtons method and conjugate gra-
dient method [69] generally require an analytical expression of the cost function
and its derivative (gradient). When dealing with well-behaved convex analytical
cost functions, the traditional calculus-based optimization methods are the most
ecient methods to nd the optimal solution. However many realistic problems
arising in a variety of applications do not fall in this category. The cost functions
generally contain discontinuities and on additionally in many instances the cost
function is evaluated using numerical methods and cannot be dened explicitly.
Over the recent years a number of natural optimization algorithms including sim-
ulated annealing, particle swarm optimization, and ant genetic algorithms have
been developed [70]. These natural optimization algorithms do not have the limi-
tations of calculus-based optimization methods and have shown great results in a
variety of optimization problems. Genetic algorithms in particular have been used
in a variety of electromagnetic problems with great results [23]. Here we give a
brief introduction of components of genetic algorithm with discrete variables (bi-
nary genetic algorithm). It is important to note that genetic algorithms can also
be applied with continuous variables. For a complete description of genetic algo-
rithms and their applications in electromagnetic problems, the reader is referred
to reference [23, 70].
111
A.2 Binary Genetic Algorithms
Genetic algorithm (GA) is a heuristic optimization method based on the evo-
lutionary principles of natural selection and evolution. Like other optimization
problems, the problem is dened by optimization variables (x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
) and
the cost function f(x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
) where N denotes the number of variables. Each
solution can be regarded as a chromosome and since we are considering binary
genetic algorithms, each chromosome can be represented as a binary string of 0s
and 1s. Figure A.1 shows a general owchart of a typical GA. Here we give a brief
description of some of the key steps in the process.
Figure A.1: Flowchart of a typical GA.
112
A.2.1 Initial Population
The initial population is generated randomly. Assuming our general population
consists of N
pop
chromosomes and each chromosome in encoded with M bits, a
random binary matrix of size N
pop
M can generate the initial population with
each row corresponding to a single chromosome.
A.2.2 Mating
Mating is the creation of ospring from the parents. The parents can be selected
using a variety of pairing methods such as random or tournament selection [70].
Once the parents have been determined a crossover point is randomly selected.
One parent passes its binary code to the left of the crossover point to one ospring
and its binary code to the right of the crossover point to the other ospring. The
other parent does the same process however the order is switched. As a result
each ospring contains portions from both parents. The process is demonstrated
in Figure A.2.
Figure A.2: The mating process for two parents to produce two ospring.
A.2.3 Mutation
During each iteration, a mutation process randomly alters a certain percentage of
the bits in each chromosome. The main purpose of introducing mutations in the
113
algorithm is to prevent convergence at a local minimum point. However mutations
are not applied to the best solutions.
A.2.4 Stopping Criteria
A variety of conditions can be used as stopping criteria for the algorithm. The
algorithm can stop once the cost function has reached a certain value or the number
of iterations has reached a preset limit.
Appendix B
Derivation for
n
(ka) and
n
(ka)
Our goal is to evaluate the denite integral in Eq. (B.1)
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d (B.1)
We start by rewriting the integrand with
1n
and
1n
dened in terms of the
associated Legendre function P
1
n
based based on Eq. (4.4)
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
] = J
1
(ka sin )
_
P
1
n
sin
+ cos
dP
1
n
d
_
(B.2)
As it was previously noted, unless otherwise stated, it is always assumed that
functions
mn
,
mn
, P
m
n
, and P
n
have cos as their argument. As the next step,
we consider Legendres dierential equation [38]
d
d
_
sin
dP
n
d
_
= n(n + 1) sin P
n
(B.3)
By performing the dierentiation in Eq. (B.3) and using the relation
dPn
d
= P
1
n
,
it can be shown that
P
1
n
sin
+ cos
dP
1
n
d
= n(n + 1) cos P
n
+ sin P
1
n
(B.4)
115
Thus the integral in Eq. (B.1) can be decomposed as
n(n + 1)
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin ) cos P
n
d
+
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin ) sin P
1
n
d (B.5)
Here we dene two auxiliary functions
n
(ka) and
n
(ka) based on the integrals
in Eq. (B.5)
n
(ka)
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin ) cos P
n
d (B.6)
n
(ka)
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin ) sin P
1
n
d (B.7)
We start by considering
n
(ka). From Gradshteyn and Ryzhik [41] we have
the following expansion for P
n
(x)
P
n
(x) =
1
2
n
n
2
k=0
(1)
k
(2n 2k)!
k!(n k)!(n 2k)!
x
n2k
(B.8)
where | denotes the oor function. The cos P
n
term in the integrand can be
written as the following nite summation [38]
cos P
n
=
1
2
n
n
2
t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!(cos )
(n2t+1)
t!(n t)!(n 2t)!
(B.9)
Substituting Eq. (B.9) into Eq. (B.6), the integrand can be represented as a nite
summation. Furthermore, due to the linearity of the integral operator, the order
for the integration and summation can be interchanged. As a result, the problem
is reduced to dealing with a summation of integrals of the form
_
/2
0
(cos )
n2t+1
J
1
(ka sin )d (B.10)
116
The integral in Eq. (B.10) can be evaluated using the following result [41]
_
/2
0
J
(z sin )(sin )
1
(cos )
2+1
d =
s
(+,+1)
(z)
2
1
z
+1
()
(B.11)
where is the gamma function and s
,
(z) is the Lommel function dened as
s
,
(z) =

2
_
Y
(z)
_
z
0
z
(z)dz J
(z)
_
z
0
z
(z)dz
_
(B.12)
and Y
is the Bessel function of the second kind of order . Letting = 1,

2 = n 2t, and z = ka in Eq. (B.11) we arrive at
_
/2
0
cos
(n2t+1)
J
1
(ka sin )d =
s
(1t+
n
2
,
n
2
t)
(ka)
(ka)
(1t+
n
2
)
(B.13)
Numerical evaluation of Lommel functions can be in general a challenging un-
dertaking. However, at this point a closer inspection of Eq. (B.13) reveals that it
is only necessary to consider Lommel functions of the form s
+1,
. We were able to
derive a concise analytical expression for this particular order of Lommel functions
as
s
+1,
(z) = z
( + 1)J
(z) (B.14)
The derivation of Eq. (B.14) is provided in Appendix D. Combining all these
results and after some further simplications we arrive at the following expression
for
n
(ka)
n
(ka) =
1
ka

1
2
n
n
2
t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!
t!(n t)!(n 2t)!
(1 t +
n
2
)2
(
n
2
t)
J
(
n
2
t)
(ka)
(ka)
(1t+
n
2
)
(B.15)
Next we consider
n
(ka) dened in Eq. (B.7). By dierentiating Eq. (B.8) with
respect to and using the fact that P
1
n
=
dPn
d
the following expansion for P
1
n
can
be obtained:
P
1
n
(cos ) =
sin
2
n
n1
2

t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!
t!(n t)!(n 2t 1)!
(cos )
n2t1
(B.16)
117
Using this expansion for P
1
n
, the integrand in Eq. (B.7) can be cast in the form of
the summation given below:
J
1
(ka sin ) sin
2
2
n
n1
2

t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!(cos )
(n2t1)
t!(n t)!(n 2t 1)!
(B.17)
Substituting Eq. (B.17) back into Eq. (B.7), the individual terms in the summation
can be evaluated using [41]
_
/2
0
J
(sin )(sin )
+1
(cos )
2+1
d
= 2
( + 1)
(1)
J
(++1)
() (B.18)
Setting = 1, = ka, and =
n
2
t 1 leads to
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin )(sin
2
)(cos )
(n2t1)
d
= 2
(
n
2
t1)
_
n
2
t
_
(ka)
(t
n
2
)
J
(
n
2
t+1)
(ka) (B.19)
Finally, by using this result we arrive at the following expression for
n
(ka)
n
(ka) =
1
2
n
n1
2

t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!2
(
n
2
t1)
_
n
2
t
_
(ka)
(t
n
2
)
J
(
n
2
t+1)
(ka)
t!(n t)!(n 2t 1)!
(B.20)
Appendix C
Derivation for
n
(ka)
Our goal is to evaluate the denite integral in Eq. (C.1)
_
/2
0
_
J
1
(ka sin )[
1n
+ cos
1n
]
_
d (C.1)
We start by rewriting the integrand with
1n
and
1n
dened in terms of the
associated Legendre function P
1
n
based based on Eq. (4.4)
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin )
sin
_
dP
1
n
d
+ cos
P
1
n
sin
_
sin d (C.2)
It can easily be shown that
_
dP
1
n
d
+ cos
P
1
n
sin
_
sin =
d
d
_
sin P
1
n
_
(C.3)
Substituting the result from Eq. (C.3) back into Eq. (C.2) and using Legendres
dierential equation in Eq. (B.3) and
dPn
d
= P
1
n
, the original integral in Eq. (4.29)
can be written as
n(n + 1)
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin )P
n
d n(n + 1)
n
(ka) (C.4)
where the auxiliary function
n
(ka) has been dened as
_
/2
0
J
1
(ka sin )P
n
d
n
(ka) (C.5)
119
Evaluating the integral in Eq. (C.5) follows a very similar procedure to that already
presented in Appendix B for
n
(ka). We start by rewriting the integrand as
a nite summation and reversing the order of summation and integration. As
before, Lommel functions of the form s
+1,
(z) are encountered in the results,
which can be evaluated using Eq. (4.32). Combining all the results and upon
further simplications, we arrive at
n
(ka) =
1
ka

1
2
n
n
2
t=0
(1)
t
(2n 2t)!
t!(n t)!(n 2t)!
_
n+1
2
t
_
2
(
n1
2
t)
J
(
n1
2
t)
(ka)
(ka)
(
n+1
2
t)
(C.6)
Appendix D
Derivation for s
+1,
(z)
The Lommel function s
,
(z) is dened as [41]
s
,
(z) = z
1
m=0
(1)
m
_
z
2
_
2m+2
_
1
2

1
2
+
1
2
_
_
1
2
+
1
2
+
1
2
_
_
1
2

1
2
+ m +
3
2
_
_
1
2
+
1
2
+ m +
3
2
_ (D.1)
where is not a negative odd integer and is the gamma function. Alterna-
tively, s
,
(z) can also be represented as the following denite integral
s
,
(z) =

2
_
Y
(z)
_
z
0
z
( z)d z J
(z)
_
z
0
z
( z)d z
_
(D.2)
where J
and Y
are the Bessel function of the rst and second kind of order
respectively. Considering the special case of Lommel functions of the form s
+1,
,
based on the integral denition given in Eq. (D.2) we have
s
+1,
(z) =

2
_
Y
(z)
_
z
0
z
+1
J
( z)d z J
(z)
_
z
0
z
+1
Y
( z)d z
_
(D.3)
Fortunately both integrals encountered in Eq. (D.3) have closed form solutions [41]
_
x
p+1
Z
p
(x)dx = x
p+1
Z
p+1
(x) (D.4)
121
where Z
p
represents an arbitrary Bessel function of order p. Considering the rst
term in Eq. (D.3), we arrive at
Y
(z)
_
z
0
z
+1
J
( z)d z = z
+1
Y
(z)J
(z) (D.5)
In evaluating Eq. (D.3) using Eq. (D.4), we encounter a 0 indeterminate
form due to the term z
+1
Y
+1
(z) when evaluated at z = 0. In this case the small
argument limit of Y
(z) [38] can be used to show that

lim
z0
z
+1
Y
+1
(z) =
( + 1)2
+1
(D.6)
Hence, the second term in Eq. (D.3) is
J
(z)
_
z
0
z
+1
Y
( z)d z = z
+1
J
(z)Y
+1
(z) + J
(z)
( + 1)2
+1
(D.7)
Substituting the results from Eq. (D.5) and Eq. (D.7) back into Eq. (D.3), and
using the following relationship for Bessel functions [38]
J
(z)Y
+1
(z) Y
(z)J
+1
(z) =
2
z
(D.8)
after some simplications, we arrive at:
s
+1,
(z) = z
( + 1)J
(z) (D.9)
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Vita
Frank (Farhad) A. Namin
Frank (Farhad) Namin (S. 08), received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electri-
cal engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2008. He joined the
Computational Electromagnetics and Antennas Research Lab (CEARL) at the
Pennsylvania State University in 2008 to pursue his PhD. His Ph.D. research is
funded through the Exploratory and Foundational Program Fellowship from the
Applied Research Laboratory (ARL). He is the winner of 2012 Dr. Nirmal K. Bose
Dissertation Excellence Award.

Nature-Inspired Optimization of Quasicrystalline Arrays and All-Dielectric Optical Filters and Metamaterials

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The Pennsylvania State University

The Graduate School

Signatures are on le in the Graduate School.

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

. This would ensure that the line

as the orthogonal subspace to l. Furthermore, we dene

as orthogonal projections onto l and l

(V (0)). Thus mathematically the X can be dened as [14]:

1 and = 2f denotes the angular frequency. A general

is the free-space wavenum-

from broadside. It remains possible for

; however, because most element patterns

, the algorithm is eective in reducing the

and the swarm is corrupted by a

is the wave number and is the incident wavelength in the dielectric

1. Also x, y, z denote the unit vectors in the Cartesian

(l, j) are the so-called translation coecients. If

(l, j) are given by [33]

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

are primary expansion coecients and E

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

[ (right) values for elds diracted by a circular

is the wave number and is the wavelength in the dielectric medium.

[ 0). The trigonometric

[ 0, it can be shown that:

[ 0, following approximation is valid:

incidence without a noticeable degradation

. The lter we designed consists of a layer of periodic zinc sulde

, f = 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 750THz (7.2)

is greater than 95%.

over the entire visible band.

is the Bessel function of the second kind of order . Letting = 1,

(z) [38] can be used to show that

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