Photonic Materials Cloud: An Online Interactive Open Tool for Creating, Comparing, and Testing Photonic Materials

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Plasmonics
• Materials Science
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Photonics and plasmonics research is advancing rapidly due to nanoscale fabrication and characterization.
• Material optical properties, dimensions, and surroundings critically influence photonic and plasmonic phenomena.
• Designing novel photonic devices requires extensive knowledge to assess material and morphology variations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Photonic Materials Cloud (PMCloud), a web-based, interactive open tool for designing and analyzing photonic materials.
• To enable researchers to identify subtle differences between various optical material models.
• To provide an interactive platform for evaluating material performance in fundamental optical experiments.

Main Methods:

• Development of a web-based platform, PMCloud, integrating material databases, experimental data, and analytical models.
• Implementation of an interactive interface for designing and analyzing photonic materials.
• Demonstration of PMCloud's utility through case studies in plasmonic materials and Bragg reflector design.

Main Results:

• PMCloud facilitates the identification of differences between optical material models from diverse sources.
• The tool allows interactive evaluation of material performance in numerical optical experiments.
• Applicability demonstrated for comparing novel plasmonic materials (Al-doped ZnO, ZrN) and designing dielectric Bragg reflectors.

Conclusions:

• PMCloud offers a rapid, accessible pathway for prototyping optical materials and simple photonic devices.
• The platform can serve as an educational resource for researchers in photonic materials.
• PMCloud accelerates the design and analysis cycle in photonics and plasmonics research.