Optical cavity resonance with magnetized plasma

Abstract

© 2018 Chinese Optics Letters. Indefinite media with mixed signs of dielectric tensor elements possess unbounded equifrequency surfaces that have been utilized for diverse applications such as superimaging, enhanced spontaneous emission, and thermal radiation. One particularly interesting application of indefinite media is an optical cavity supporting anomalous scaling laws. In this Letter, we show that by replacing an indefinite medium with magnetized plasma one can construct a tunable indefinite cavity. The magnetized plasma model is based on realistic semiconductor material properties at terahertz frequencies that show hyperbolic dispersion in a certain frequency regime. The hyperbolic dispersion features are utilized for the design of optical cavities. Dramatically different sizes of cavities can support the same resonance mode at the same frequency. For a cavity of fixed size, the anomalous scaling law between the resonance frequency and mode number is confirmed. The resonance frequency can be strongly modulated by changing the strength of the applied magnetic field. The proposed model provides active controllability of terahertz resonances on the deep subwavelength scale with realistic semiconductor materials.