Applications
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Dark Lines and Polarization Singularities in Bright Metasurface-Enhanced Fluorescence
The work investigates surprising dark lines and polarization singularities in momentum-space fluorescence patterns from plasmonic nanoantenna lattices. These features arise from destructive far-field interference between diffractively outcoupled TE and TM waveguide modes. JCMsuite's finite element method solver was used to efficiently compute the T-matrix of individual plasmonic scatterers, which was then integrated into a lattice reciprocity model to simulate and validate the complex angle- and polarization-resolved emission patterns.
D. Pal, A. F. Koenderink. Dark Lines and Polarization Singularities in Bright Metasurface-Enhanced Fluorescence. Laser Photonics Rev., e02199 (2025).
2025 DOI Publication link
Light Sources, Metamaterials, optical resonators and antennas, photonic crystals, Light Scattering Computation
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Efficient computation of thermal radiation from biperiodic layered systems using the T‑matrix method
This work presents a T‑matrix‑based method for efficiently computing angle‑ and polarization‑resolved thermal emission from metasurfaces. The T‑matrices of individual meta‑atoms were computed using JCMsuite’s finite‑element solver, providing accurate reference data for the scattering response. These pre‑computed T‑matrices were then employed in the treams library to rapidly evaluate thermal emissivity for many lattice configurations, radiation directions, and polarizations, demonstrating a significant speed‑up compared to conventional RCWA or full FEM approaches.
M. Gabbert, et al. Efficient computation of thermal radiation from biperiodic layered systems using the T‑matrix method. arXiv:2508.11590 (2025).
2025 DOI Publication link
Light Sources, Metamaterials, optical chirality, Advanced Finite Element Methods, Light Scattering Computation
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Physics-informed Bayesian optimization of expensive-to-evaluate black-box functions
This paper presents a physics-informed Bayesian optimization (BO) method that improves the efficiency of optimizing expensive-to-evaluate functions, such as those from physical simulations. The proposed method uses multi-output Gaussian processes to model the full vector of physical observables before mapping to a scalar objective, retaining more information and accelerating convergence. The performance of this method, implemented within JCMwave's JCMoptimizer suite, is benchmarked against standard BO and heuristic methods on real-world problems, including the inverse design of a nanophotonic beam-splitter simulated with JCMsuite.
I. Sekulic, et al. Physics-informed Bayesian optimization of expensive-to-evaluate black-box functions. Mach. Learn.: Sci. Technol. 6, 040503 (2025).
2025 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, diffractive optics, integrated optics, optical resonators and antennas, software benchmarks, Optimization and Parameter Retrieval Methods
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A Digital Twin for a Chiral Sensing Platform
A digital twin for a nanophotonically enhanced chiral sensing platform was developed to predict and analyze circular dichroism (CD) measurements. The platform uses helicity-preserving optical cavities to significantly enhance the weak CD signal of chiral molecules. JCMsuite's finite element method solver was used to compute the T-matrices of the nanostructured cavity components, which are essential for the fast and efficient simulation of the entire system's optical response.
M. Nyman, et al. A Digital Twin for a Chiral Sensing Platform. Laser Photon. Rev. 18, 2300967 (2024).
2024 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Optical Metrology and Sensing, optical chirality, Advanced Finite Element Methods, Light Scattering Computation
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Chiral plasmonic metasurface assembled by DNA origami
This work explores the fabrication of a chiral plasmonic metasurface using bottom-up DNA origami technology to achieve strong circular dichroism (CD). The optical properties of the chiral metamolecule — a tripod decorated with gold nanorods — were simulated and optimized with JCMsuite. The software enabled full-wave finite-element calculations to retrieve the T-matrix, compute orientation-averaged CD spectra, and assess the feasibility of the metasurface design.
N. Gieseler, et al. Chiral plasmonic metasurface assembled by DNA origami. Opt. Express, 32, 16040 (2024).
2024 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Optical Metrology and Sensing, optical chirality, plasmonics, Advanced Finite Element Methods, Light Scattering Computation
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Poles and zeros in non-Hermitian systems: Application to photonics
The authors present a contour-integration-based framework for computing poles and zeros of electromagnetic response functions in non-Hermitian photonic systems. They demonstrate the approach on a dielectric metasurface, determining complex-valued reflection zeros and poles, their sensitivities to geometric parameters, and performing residue-based modal expansions. The numerical simulations were performed using the finite-element Maxwell solver JCMsuite to solve scattering problems at complex frequencies along integration contours.
F. Binkowski et al. Poles and zeros in non-Hermitian systems: Application to photonics. Phys. Rev. B 109, 045414 (2024).
2024 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, diffractive optics, optical resonators and antennas, Advanced Finite Element Methods, Resonance Mode Computation
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Separating Material and Geometry Contributions to Circular Dichroism of Chiral Objects
This study developed a multi-scale computational approach to disentangle the contributions of geometry and material chirality to the circular dichroism (CD) of chiral objects. The researchers used JCMsuite to perform full-wave finite element simulations, extracting transition matrices to compute the optical response of objects like helices and tetrahedral sphere arrangements. This enabled the separation of CD into geometry- and material-dependent parts, showing that their linear superposition accurately predicts total CD, even for resonant systems.
L. Rebholz, et al. Separating the Material and Geometry Contribution to the Circular Dichroism of Chiral Objects Made from Chiral Media. ACS Photonics. 11, 1171-1179 (2024).
2024 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Optical Metrology and Sensing, optical chirality, Advanced Finite Element Methods
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Crossing of the Branch Cut: The Topological Origin of a Universal 2Pi-Phase Retardation in Non-Hermitian Metasurfaces
Poles and zeros are computed with JCMsuite to generate a basic understanding of how to engineer electromagnetic fields at material interface e.g. metasurfaces. This knowledge can be used to generate full wavefront control of optical components which require spatial phase modulation of incoming beams with a phase from 0 to 2 pi.
R. Colom, et al. Crossing of the Branch Cut: The Topological Origin of a Universal 2𝝅-Phase Retardation in Non-Hermitian Metasurfaces. Laser & Photonics Reviews, 17, 2200976 (2023).
2023 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, integrated optics, Advanced Finite Element Methods, Light Scattering Computation
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A T-Matrix Based Approach to Homogenize Artificial Materials
The computation of new materials as 3D lattices poses a large computational effort. Here, a homogenization method based on the effective transition matrix is introduced for efficient analysis. A combination with quantum-chemical and Maxwell solvers allows us to efficiently compute the response of arbitrarily-shaped volumetric patchworks of structured molecular materials and metamaterials.
B. Zerulla, et al., A T-Matrix Based Approach to Homogenize Artificial Materials. Adv. Optical Mater., 11, 2201564 (2023).
2023 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Light Scattering Computation
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Universal Active Metasurfaces for Ultimate Wavefront Molding by Manipulating the Reflection Singularities
An innovative design strategy for active metasurfaces, relying on the position of topological singularities to address full phase modulation of light with almost unity efficiency is presented. The metasurfaces consist of asymmetric Gires–Tournois resonators and their optical properties are computed with JCMsuite.
M. Elsawy, et al. Universal Active Metasurfaces for Ultimate Wavefront Molding by Manipulating the Reflection Singularities. Laser & Photonics Reviews, 17, 2200880 (2023).
2023 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, integrated optics, optical resonators and antennas, Light Scattering Computation
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Uniform Huygens Metasurfaces with Postfabrication Phase Pattern Recording Functionality
A novel way for the design and the fabrication of phase-gradient Huygens metasurfaces, which uses laser-annealing of uniform particles made of As_2S_3 glass, is presented. Within the design process, numerical simulations are performed with JCMsuite to compute the reflection, transmission, and positions of poles and zeros.
E. Mikheeva, et al., Uniform Huygens Metasurfaces with Postfabrication Phase Pattern Recording Functionality. ACS Photonics, 10, 1538–1546 (2023).
2023 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Light Scattering Computation, Resonance Mode Computation
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Asymmetric phase modulation of light with parity-symmetry broken metasurfaces
To design wavefront-shaping of metasurfaces, an analytic expression to predict the phase singularities in the complex plane and a general framework to predict and study these resonant systems are presented. It can be shown that breaking the out-of-plane symmetry allows for full-phase modulation with a single mode.
E. Mikheeva, et al. Asymmetric phase modulation of light with parity-symmetry broken metasurfaces, Optica 10, 1287-1294 (2023).
2023 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, optical resonators and antennas, Resonance Mode Computation
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Disordered antireflective Huygens' metasurface made from High-Index Disks for heterojunction solar cells
With the target to improve the efficiency of solar cells, a disordered arrangement of high-index dielectric submicron-sized disks is experimentally exploited as an antireflective Huygens' metasurface. The response of the entire metasurface is simulated using Born's approximation, where the distribution of the disks obtained from SEM images determines the structure factor while FEM simulations with JCMsuite are used to determine the form factor of the individual disks.
P. M. Piechulla, et al. Antireflective Huygens’ Metasurface with Correlated Disorder Made from High-Index Disks Implemented into Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells. ACS Photonics (2021).
2021 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Photovoltaics, Light Scattering Computation
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Double-layer metasurface for enhanced photon up-conversion
Multi-layer metasurfaces are considered for enhancing photon-upconversion through the excitation of resonances of the metasurface. A simulation with JCMuite shows that the measured transmission resonances are accompanied with strongly enhanced near fields close to the metasurface which enhance the upconversion.
P. Manley, et al. Double-layer metasurface for enhanced photon up-conversion. APL Photonics, 6(3), 036103 (2021).
2021 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, Photovoltaics, photonic crystals, Light Scattering Computation
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Realization of optical diffusers with disordered dielectric Huygens’ metasurfaces
Since conventional diffusors lack the potential for on-chip integration, a random arrangement of carefully designed nanoparticles on a surface is considered to realize an optical diffusor. The response of the random surface is computed with the a T-matrix method. The T-matrix of the individual scatterers up to octupolar order is computed with JCMsuite.
D. Arslan, A. Rahimzadegan, et al. Towards perfect optical diffusers: Dielectric Huygens’ metasurfaces with critical positional disorder. Adv. Mat., 2105868 (2021).
2021 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, diffractive optics, Light Scattering Computation
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Metasurface-enhanced photon upconversion upon 1550 nm excitation
Erbium ions (Er3+) used for photon upconversion suffer from a low absorption cross-section and a low brightness. The ability of silicon metasurfaces to provide greatly enhanced electrical near-fields is employed to gain a more than 2400-fold enhanced photon upconversion. With the aid of optical simulations using JCMsuite, the enhancement is attributed to the excitation of metasurface resonances from specific incident angles.
D. Ahiboz, et al. Metasurface-Enhanced Photon Upconversion upon 1550 nm Excitation. Adv. Opt. Mater. 2101285 (2021).
2021 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, nonlinear optics, Light Scattering Computation
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Effects of symmetry-breaking on electromagnetic backscattering
The Kerker effect, i.e. the total suppression of back scattering, is a consequence of the rotational and duality symmetry of the system. The effect of the breaking of each of the symmetries on the backscattering on the system is numerically investigated.
M. I. Abdelrahman, et al. Effects of symmetry-breaking on electromagnetic backscattering. Sci. Rep., 11, 1721 (2021).
2021 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, nonlinear optics, Light Scattering Computation
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Flat optics in high numerical aperture broadband imaging systems
Integrating diffractive lenses (DLs) into optical imaging systems often significantly decrease their size or increase their performance. Despite only efficient for small diffraction angles, it is quantitavily shown that DLs are suitable for high-numerical-aperture systems. JCMsuite is used to simulate the diffraction properties in the limit of infinitely periodic structures.
D. Werdehausen, et al. Flat optics in high numerical aperture broadband imaging systems. Journal of Optics, 22(6), 065607 (2020).
2020 DOI Publication link
Metamaterials, diffractive optics, Light Scattering Computation
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Dielectric microspheres covered with metallic nanorods for perfect lensing and cloaking applications
Photonic nanostructures made of a dielectric sphere covered with many metallic particles are a basic building block for optical metamaterials with a magnetic response. To tune the properties of the system spheres covered with metallic nanorods of variable aspect ratio. Full-wave optical simulations using JCMsuite support the spectroscopic characterization.
R. Grillo, et al. Self-Assembled Arrays of Gold Nanorod-Decorated Dielectric Microspheres with a Magnetic Dipole Response in the Visible Range for Perfect Lensing and Cloaking Applications. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 3(6), 6108 (2020).
2020 DOI
Metamaterials, Light Scattering Computation
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Benchmark of Global Optimization Approaches for Nano-optical Shape Optimization and Parameter Reconstruction
Several global optimization methods for three typical nano-optical optimization problems are benchmarked: particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, and Bayesian optimization as well as multistart versions of downhill simplex optimization and the limited-memory Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (L-BFGS) algorithm. In the shown examples, Bayesian optimization, mainly known from machine learning applications, obtains significantly better results in a fraction of the run times of the other optimization methods.
P.-I. Schneider, et al. Benchmarking five global optimization approaches for nano-optical shape optimization and parameter reconstruction. ACS Photonics 6, 2726 (2019).
2019 DOI
Metamaterials, Optical Metrology and Sensing, Optical and EUV Lithography, quantum optics, Optimization and Parameter Retrieval Methods, software benchmarks