Light Harvester
To capture light from a large area and concentrate it
FDTD, FETD and FEFD plasmonic simulations
Plasmonics can be used to capture light from a large area and concentrate it into a very small area - so called "light harvester" structure. This can be used for example to improve the sensitivity of a photodiode without having to use a lens. A typical harvester geometry consists of a line grating on a thin metal plate with a slot in the middle. The grating is designed to couple incident light into a "spoof plasmon" that is directed to the slot and then through the plate.
OmniSim offers you many ways to model plasmonic structures:
- the FETD Engine: 2D and 3D finite element time domain
- the FDTD Engine: 2D and 3D finite difference time domain, featuring a unique subgridding tool
- the FEFD Engine: fast 2D finite element frequency domain, great for quick optimisation.
We have used all three FETD, FEFD and FDTD Engines to model and optimise light harvesters. You can see below a few examples of designs of field profiles incident on patterned metal surfaces.
