Objective-First Nanophotonic Design

Abstract

We introduce an “objective-first” strategy for designing nanophotonic devices, and we demonstrate the design of nanophotonic coupler, cloak, and mimic devices. Simply put, our objective-first method works by prioritizing the performance of the device even above satisfying Maxwell’s equations. We show how this is accomplished starting from Maxwell’s equations, applying numerical discretization, and then solving not only for the field variables but the structure variables as well. We then demonstrate the ability to quickly produce designs for both traditional devices such as waveguide couplers, as well as more exotic devices such as optical cloaks and mimics. Finally, we point the reader to future improvements and extensions of our method.