We present a combined experimental and numerical study of the far-field emission properties of optical travelling wave antennas made from low-loss dielectric materials. The antennas considered here are composed of two simple building blocks, a director and a reflector, deposited on a glass substrate. Colloidal quantum dots placed in the feed gap between the two elements serve as internal light source. The emission profile of the antenna is mainly formed by the director while the reflector suppresses backward emission. Systematic studies of the director dimensions as well as variation of antenna material show that the effective refractive index of the director primarily governs the far-field emission pattern. Below cut off, i.e., if the director’s effective refractive index is smaller than the refractive index of the substrate, the main lobe results from leaky wave emission along the director. In contrast, if the director supports a guided mode, the emission predominately originates from the end facet of the director.

We study a double-scattering coherent mechanism of negative polarization (NP) near opposition that is observed for powder-like surfaces. The problem is solved numerically for absorbing structures with irregular constituents, cubes, spheres, and ellipsoids larger than the wavelength of incident light. Our simulations show that double scattering between two random irregular particles shows weak NP. Adding one more particle significantly increases the relative contribution of double scattering which enhances NP. Simulations with regular shapes and controlled geometric parameters show that the interference mechanism is sensitive to the geometry of the scattering system and can also result in no polarization or even strong enhancement of positive polarization at backscattering.

Optical traveling wave antennas offer unique opportunities to control and selectively guide light into a specific direction, which renders them excellent candidates for optical communication and sensing. These applications require state-of-the-art engineering to reach optimized functionalities such as high directivity and radiation efficiency, low sidelobe levels, broadband and tunable capabilities, and compact design. In this work, we report on the numerical optimization of the directivity of optical traveling wave antennas made from low-loss dielectric materials using full-wave numerical simulations in conjunction with the particle swarm optimization algorithm. The antennas are composed of a reflector and a director deposited on a glass substrate, and an emitter placed in the feed gap between them serves as an internal source of excitation. In particular, we analyze antennas with rectangular- and horn-shaped directors made of either hafnium dioxide or silicon. The optimized antennas produce highly directional emissions due to the presence of two dominant guided TE modes in the director in addition to leaky modes. These guided modes dominate the far-field emission pattern and govern the direction of the main lobe emission, which predominately originates from the end facet of the director. Our work also provides a comprehensive analysis of the modes, radiation patterns, parametric influences, and bandwidths of the antennas, which highlights their robust nature.

We demonstrate the numerical and experimental realization of optimized optical traveling-wave antennas made of low-loss dielectric materials. These antennas exhibit highly directive radiation patterns and our studies reveal that this nature comes from two dominant guided TE modes excited in the waveguide-like director of the antenna, in addition to the leaky modes. The optimized antennas possess a broadband nature and have a nearunity radiation efficiency at an operational wavelength of 780 nm. Compared to the previously studied plasmonic antennas for photon emission, our all-dielectric approach demonstrates a new class of highly directional, low-loss, and broadband optical antennas.

We demonstrate a large-scale two dimensional silicon-based optical phased array (OPA) composed of nanoantennas with circular gratings that are balanced in power and aligned in phase, required for producing desired radiation patterns in the far-field. The OPAs are numerically optimized to have an upward efficiency of up to 90%, targeting radiation concentration mainly in the field of view. We envision that our OPAs have the ability of generating complex holographic images, rendering them an attractive candidate for a wide range of applications like LiDAR sensors, optical trapping, optogenetic stimulation and augmented-reality displays.