Surface Science 601 (2007) 4492–4496

www.elsevier.com/locate/susc

Transmission spectra in photonic band-gap Fibonacci nanostructures

F.F. de Medeiros a, E.L. Albuquerque a, M.S. Vasconcelos b,*

a
Departamento de Fı́sica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal-RN, Brazil
b
Departamento de Ciências Exatas, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Maranhão, 65025-001 São Luı́s-MA, Brazil

Available online 24 April 2007

Abstract

Optical transmission spectra of photonic band-gap Fibonacci quasiperiodic nanostructures composed of both positive (SiO2) and neg-
ative refractive index materials, the so-called metamaterials, are calculated by using a theoretical model based on the transfer matrix
approach for normal incidence geometry. The transmission spectra of these Fibonacci nanostructures, for the case where both refractive
index can be approximated as a constant, show a strike self-similarity behavior, and perfect transmission peaks are observed due to its
internal coupling between localized modes and propagation modes, enabling the structure to be used as an ideal optical filter. For more
realistic case, where the permittivity (x) is modelled by a plasmonic dielectric function, and the magnetic permissivity l(x) is modelled
by a similar model, there is no more a self-similar pattern, although keeping Bragg refraction gaps. In both cases, however, our trans-
mission spectra unveil smooth structure due to the phase compensation effect. The zero-n gap case is also investigated, showing a peculiar
independence to the details of the crystal structure (unlike the usual Bragg refraction).
Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Computer simulations; Photonic crystals; Plasmons; Quasiperiodic superlattices

1. Introduction with alternating dielectric and negative refractive index

Materials possessing simultaneously negative magnetic
permeability and electric permittivity are physically permis-
sible and would exhibit a negative refractive index [1–7].
They were coined as left-handed materials (LHM) because
they support backward waves, for which the electric field ~E,
the magnetic field H~ , and the Poynting vector ~
S form a left-
handed triplet. Besides, the group velocity of wave propa-
gation in such media is opposite to its phase velocity, mak-
ing the perfect lens possible (for an up to date review see
Ref. [2]).
Periodic multilayered structures containing negative
refractive index materials can be considered as a sequence
of the perfect lenses with unique transmittance or reflec-
tance properties in the Bragg regime [8]. More recently, it
was shown that a one-dimensional periodic stack of layers
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 983 2189035; fax: +55 983 2189001.
E-mail address: manoelvasconcelos@yahoo.com.br (M.S. Vasconce-
los).
material, with zero averaged refractive index, displays a
narrow spectral gap in the transmission, which is quite dif-
ferent from a Bragg reflection gap [9].
On the other hand, the discovery of quasiperiodic struc-
tures has fired up a new field of condensed-matter physics,
given rise to many practical applications (for an up to date
review of this field see Ref. [10]). For example, the multi-
wavelength second-harmonic generation [11] and the direct
third-harmonic generation [12] have been realized in a
Fibonacci superlattice. In the field of photonic crystals,
absolute photonic band gap in a 12-fold triangle–square
tilling has been recently reported [13]. For quasiperiodic
dielectric multilayers, Vasconcelos et al. has shown the
fractality of their optical spectra [14,15], as well as the influ-
ence of the oblique incidence.
It is the aim of this work to investigate the transmission
spectra of a light beam normally incident from a transpar-
ent medium into a multilayer photonic structure composed
of SiO2/metamaterial layers arranged in a quasiperiodical
Fibonacci fashion. Since the pioneers works of Merlin

0039-6028/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.susc.2007.04.123
 F.F. de Medeiros et al. / Surface Science 601 (2007) 4492–4496 4493

et al. [16–18] the definition of quasiperiodic sequence have

turned standard. Quasiperiodic structures, which can be 0
A2C A1CN
idealized as the experimental realization of a one-dimen-
sional quasicrystal, are composed from the superposition
of two (or more) building blocks that are arranged in a de- x

sired manner. Fibonacci multilayer photonic structure can A1C0 A B A A B C

be grown by juxtaposing two building blocks A and B, in
such a way that the nth-stage of the superlattice SN is given
iteratively by the rule SN = SN1SN2, for N P 2, with
S0 = B and S1 = A. The number of the building blocks in-
creases according to the Fibonacci number,
FN = FN1 + FN2 (with F0 = F1 = 1), and the ratio be-
tween the number of building blocks A and the number
of building blocks B in p theffiffiffi sequence is equal to the golden
mean number s ¼ ð1 þ 5Þ=2. This multilayered photonic
structure could be also grown by the inflation rule:
A ! AB, B ! A.
Although several theoretical techniques have been used
to study the transmission spectra in these structures, in
the present work we make use of the transfer-matrix ap-
proach to analyze them, simplifying the algebra which
would be otherwise quite involved (for a review see Ref.
[19]). Our main aim is two fold: First, we want to investi-
gate the behavior of the light when it pass through a Fibo-
nacci photonic layered system, where medium B is fulfilled
by a metamaterial and is characterized by a negative refrac-
tion index nB. This includes the zero averaged refractive in-
dex,  n ¼ ðnA d A þ nB d B Þ=ðd A þ d B Þ ¼ 0, considering the
central wavelength k0 = 700 nm, where the so called zero-
n gap will appear. In this case is expected that the quasipe-
riodicity to be influent in their transmission spectra, creat-
ing band gaps well defined and a self-similar pattern as in
Fibonacci multilayered photonic structure with positive in-
dex refraction [14]. Second, we intend to investigate the
more realistic case, where the permittivity B(x) is modelled
by a plasmonic dielectric function, in which there is no
more a self-similar pattern, although keeping Bragg refrac-
tion gaps as in the periodic photonic multilayered
structure.
The outline of this paper is as follow: in the next section
we present the theoretical calculation of the transmission
spectra, which is based on the transfer-matrix approach.
The numerical results for these spectra are shown in Sec-
tion 3, including a discussion about their main features.
The conclusions are summarized in Section 4.
2. Transfer-matrix
C
z
z=0 z=L
Fig. 1. The schematic representation showing the geometry of the
Fibonacci quasiperiodic multilayer system considered in this work. Here
L is the size of the whole superlattice structure.
We choose the z-axis normal to the interface, the x-axis in
the plane of the figure, and the y-axis out of the plane of
the figure. While our arguments will apply to a wave with
arbitrary polarization, we have considered the p-polariza-
tion mode without any loss of generality, since at normal
incidence both s- and p-polarization give the same results.
The isotropic electromagnetic medium can be generally
described by a dielectric permittivity  and the magnetic
permeability l. Its dispersion relation can be obtained by
solving the wave equation [9,20]
   
ZðxÞ d 1 dEðxÞ x 2
 ¼ EðxÞ; ð1Þ
nðxÞ dx ZðxÞnðxÞ dx c
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffipffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where nðxÞ ¼ ðxÞ lðxÞ and ZðxÞ ¼ lðxÞ= ðxÞ are
the refractive index and the impedance at frequency x,
respectively. They are layer dependent. The medium A,
with thickness dA, is fulfilled by SiO2 and is characterized
by a constant positive refractive index nA. The medium
B, with thickness dB, is fulfilled by a metamaterial, charac-
pffiffiffiffiffipffiffiffiffiffi
terized by a negative refractive index nB ¼ B lB . They
are surrounded by the transparent medium C with a con-
stant refractive index nC (see Fig. 1).
In order to obtain the transmission spectra, we must re-
late the amplitudes A01C and A02C of the electromagnetic field
in the transparent medium C at z < 0 to those in the region
z > L, L being the size of the quasiperiodic structure, by
successive applications of the above equation in each layer,
together with Maxwell’s electromagnetic boundary condi-
tions at each interface along the multilayer system.
The transmission of a normal incident light wave across
the interfaces a ! b (a, b being any A, B and C medium) is
defined by the interface matrices
 
1 1 þ Z a =Z b 1  Z a =Z b
M ab ¼ : ð2Þ
2 1  Z a =Z b 1 þ Z a =Z b

We now intend to investigate the light transmission The propagation of the light wave within one of the lay-
spectra in artificial structure exhibiting deterministic disor- ers c (c = A or B) is characterized by the propagation
der, i.e., the Fibonacci superlattices. To calculate the light matrices
transmission rate through the Fibonacci multilayer system,  
expðik c d c Þ 0
we use a transfer-matrix approach for the electromagnetic Mc ¼ ; ð3Þ
0 expðik c d c Þ
fields. To this end, we consider that a p-polarized (TE
wave) light of frequency x is normally incident from a with kc = ncx/c.
transparent medium C with respect to the one-dimensional The transfer-matrix for any higher order of the Fibo-
photonic crystal formed by the layered system (see Fig. 1). nacci sequence SN (N P 3), is given by
4494 F.F. de Medeiros et al. / Surface Science 601 (2007) 4492–4496

M N ¼ M CA T N M AC for N even; ð4Þ exp(idB) and vice-versa. This effect keeps the same config-
M N ¼ M CA T N M BC for N odd; ð5Þ uration for the incident and reflected electromagnetic wave
at the interface A–B, but the electromagnetic wave at layer
with, B have a sign change in the exponentials when compared to
T N ¼ T N 1 T N 2 for N even; ð6Þ the electromagnetic wave at layer A. This effect is expected
to be reflected somehow in the transmission spectra of the
T N ¼ T N 1 M BA T N 2 for N odd; ð7Þ quasiperiodic multilayered systems treated here.
whose initial conditions are The optical transmission spectrum for the ninth-genera-
tion (55-layer) quasiperiodic Fibonacci sequence, as a func-
T 1 ¼ M A ; and T 2 ¼ M A M AB M B : ð8Þ tion of the reduced frequency X, is shown in Fig. 2a. The
It relates the amplitudes A01C and A02C of the electromag- transmission spectrum presents a unique mirror symmetri-
netic field in the transparent medium C at z < 0 to those in cal profile around the midgap frequency X = 1 (which is of
the region z > L, i.e., course the midgap frequency of a periodic quarter-wave-
! ! length multilayer). Besides, the structure is transparent
A01C AN1C (the transmission coefficient is closely equal to 1.0) at the
¼ MN : ð9Þ
A02C 0 reduced frequencies X = 0.898 and X = 1.101, as we can
see in Fig. 2b, forming two broad peaks, also distributed
The reflectance and the transmittance coefficients are symmetrically around X = 1. The condition of transparent-
simply given by ness implies that the layers A and B are equivalent from a
2 wave point of view. Furthermore, the transmission spec-
M 21 2
R ¼ and T ¼ 1 ; ð10Þ trum has a scaling property with respect to the generation
M 11 M 11
where Mi,j (i, j = 1, 2) are the elements of the optical trans-
fer-matrix MN.

3. Numerical results

In this section we present numerical computer simula-

tions for the light transmission through the Fibonacci qua-
siperiodic multilayered photonic structure. Let us first
assume an ideal model system in which both the magnetic
permeability and the electric permittivity can be approxi-
mated by constants in the frequency range of interest. We
have chosen medium A as silicon dioxide (SiO2), whose
refraction index is nA = 1.45, while medium B is considered
to have nB = 1. Also, we assume the individual layers as
quarter-wave layers, for which the quasiperiodicity is ex-
pected to be more effective [21], with the central wavelength
k0 = 700 nm. These conditions yield the physical thickness
dJ = (175/nJ) nm, J = A or B, such that nAdA = nBdB,
which gives the very reversed phase shift in the two mate-
rials. Defining  n ¼ ðnA d A þ nB d B Þ=ðd A þ d B Þ, this assump-
tion means the so-called zero- n photonic region. Further,
we also consider medium C to be vacuum, and the phase
shifts are given by
dA ¼ ðp=2ÞX cosðhA Þ; dB ¼ ðp=2ÞX cosðhB Þ; ð11Þ
where X is the reduced frequency X = x/x0 = k0/k.
For normal incidence hA = hB = 0, and dA = dB. Here,
the negative phase shift for medium B means that the light
waves propagate in a direction opposite to the energy flux
(+z-direction in Fig. 1), i.e., one plane light wave, whose
electromagnetic field is proportional to exp(idB), will it- Fig. 2. Normal-incidence transmission spectra of light beam into a
quasiperiodic Fibonacci multilayered photonic structure: (a) the trans-
self propagate in the (z)-direction, while the Poynting
mittance T as a function of the reduced frequency X = x/x0 for the ninth
vector propagates in the (+z)-direction. Therefore, at med- generation of the Fibonacci sequence; (b) same as in (a), but for the
ium B the effect of the negative refraction index is to reduced range of frequency 0.8 6 X 6 1.2; (c) same as in (b), but for the
change the forward waves exp(idB) into the backward ones fifteenth generation of the Fibonacci sequence.
 F.F. de Medeiros et al. / Surface Science 601 (2007) 4492–4496 4495

number of the Fibonacci sequence, within a symmetrical Lorentz model, which can be achieved by an array of wire
interval around X = 1. To understand this scaling prop- elements into which cuts are periodically introduced.
erty, consider Fig. 2b, which shows the optical transmis- Neglecting any damping term (when lossy metamaterial is
sion spectrum of Fig. 2a for the range 0.80 < X < 1.20. considered, the dumping factor can be defined as a fraction
This spectrum is the same, as shown in Fig. 2c, to the of the plasma frequency), the composite material possesses
one representing the fifteenth-generation (877-layer) quasi- the negative refractive index in the microwave region,
periodic Fibonacci sequence (i.e., it has been recovered whose corresponding dielectric permittivity (x) and the
after six Fibonacci generation), for the range of frequency magnetic permeability l(x) are respectively given by [23]
reduced by a scale factor approximately equal to 25.
ðxÞ ¼ 1  x2p =x2 ; ð12Þ
Although with different scale and profile, as expected, this
2 2
striking self-similar pattern was also found for the case lðxÞ ¼ 1  F x =ðx  x20 Þ; ð13Þ
where medium B is a positive refractive index material
where the plasma frequency xp, the resonance frequency
[14], and indeed this is a consequence that all Fibonacci
x0, and the fraction F are determined only by the geometry
structure possess a self-similarity profile around the fixed
of the lattice rather than by the charge, effective mass and
point d = (m + 1/2)p, m = 0, 1, . . . [22].
density of electrons, as is the case in naturally occur-
The influence of the metamaterial in the light wave trans-
ring materials. We use in this work x0/2p = 4 GHz,
mission spectra in the Fibonacci quasiperiodic superlattices
xp/2p = 10 GHz, and F = 0.56, motivated by the experi-
at ninth generation, is shown in Fig. 3 by means of the
mental work of Smith and collaborators [24].
transmission rate as a function of the negative refraction
In Fig. 4 we show the transmission spectra for the quasi-
index n in layer B, considering the midgap frequency of a
periodic sequences studied here, considering its generation
periodic quarter-wavelength multilayer X = 1. Quite inter-
number N = 5, 6, 7, and 8. The refractive index nB, which
esting, we can observe now that the optical transmission
depends on the frequency x, is negative in the range of
spectra for Fibonacci sequence present a periodic oscilla-
frequency 0.4 < x/xp < 0.6. The thickness of each medium
tory behavior within the interval 2m  1 < jnj < 2m + 1,
is chosen from (j1)1/2dj = k0/4, with A1 = A = 12.3,
m = 1, 2, . . ..
lA(x) = 1 and B1 = 1. There is a sharp behavior of the
The above discussions apply only to the ideal case where
negative refractive index near the frequency closed to
both the magnetic permeability and the electrical permittiv-
4 GHz, and a smooth profile until it reaches a 6 GHz
ity are frequency non-dispersive, which is valid under the
frequency which defines the frequency region for the
assumption that the size of the fabricated negative refrac-
zero refraction index. This zero refractive index displays
tive index material can be as tiny as the normal positive
a narrow spectral gap in the transmission, which is quite
refractive one. However, all realized artificial negative
different from the usual Bragg reflected band gap. For
refractive index metamaterials have electric permittivity 
frequencies larger than 6 GHz, both metamaterial and
and magnetic permeability l frequency dispersive, being
SiO2 have positive refractive index n. Therefore the band
simultaneously negative only within a narrow frequency
gaps above this frequency result from the Bragg reflection
bandwidth. Since microstructures of practical negative
due to the modulation of the impedance and the refractive
refractive metamaterials are on the order of a few millime-
index. Clearly we can observe that the spectra is not any-
ters, their typical frequency region ranges from 1 GHz to
more self-similar. Furthermore, instead of a symmetrical
14 GHz.
For convenience we will use a causal plasmonic form
for the dielectric permittivity (x) mimicking the Drude–

Fig. 3. Transmission coefficients T as a function of the absolute value of Fig. 4. Transmission coefficients T as a function of the reduced frequency
the negative refraction index n at X = x/x0 = 1. We have considered the x/xp for the case of the normal incidence, considering different generation
ninth generation for the Fibonacci quasiperiodic structure. numbers of the quasiperiodic Fibonacci structure.
4496 F.F. de Medeiros et al. / Surface Science 601 (2007) 4492–4496
distribution, we have an optical gap, starting from
x = 0.425, which becomes broader as long as the Fibonacci
generation number N increases. After that, it presents sev-
eral Bragg peaks, whose number also increase with N.
4. Conclusions
In summary, we have presented the transmission spectra
of light waves which propagate through a quasiperiodic
Fibonacci multilayers, where one of their components has
a negative refraction index. Considering a frequency-inde-
pendent refractive index, a strike self-similar pattern is pre-
sented. Furthermore, a unique mirror symmetrical profile,
with no counterpart for the positive refractive index case, is
the main signature of the light transmission spectra. On the
other hand, a more realistic frequency-dependent refractive
index for the metamaterial layer B gives rise to a rich trans-
mission profile of Braggs peaks with no more self-similarity
or mirror symmetry in their optical transmission spectra.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank partial financial support from
the Brazilian Research Agencies, CNPq-Rede Nanobioe-
struturas, FINEP-CT-INFRA and FAPEMA.
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