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Welcome
This is the website of Aaron Danner, an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This site was last updated July 20, 2007.

Biography
Aaron Danner was born in the United States of America, and he grew up on a farm in northwest Missouri. Prior to his appointment to NUS, he was employed at Agilent (now Avago) Technologies, where his research projects and interests included photonic crystals, efficient LED structures, and nano-scale fabrication methods. Prior to joining Avago, he was a visiting member of the Microsystem Research Center at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2004, where he investigated high speed characteristics of vertical cavity lasers. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and completed his graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a fellow of the U.S. National Science Foundation and a member of the IEEE-Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) and the Optical Society of America (OSA).

Contact Information
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
National University of Singapore
4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117576
Tel：(+65) 6516-2111
Fax：(+65) 6779-1103
E-mail：
Research Interests
  • Nano-scale photonic devices and their fabrication methods
  • Photonic crystals and their applications in LEDs and lasers
  • Photonic device physics and simulation
  • Transformation Optics
  • Metamaterials and invisibility devices
  • Solar Cells


Current Ph.D. Students

Mr. Xin Maoqing and Mr. Si Guangyuan

Recommended Reading and Links
Photonic crystals, and other periodic structures can be modeled in frequency space using the planewave expansion method. My tutorial on the plane wave expansion method may prove useful to students interested in learning how photonic crystal band diagrams can be calculated from first principles. While commercial and free tools are available to calculate bands of photonic crystals, a similar method can be used to model electronic bands in semiconductors. My step-by-step description of the pseudopotential method may be useful for students trying to learn the method. The link also includes a free Mathematica file that implements the method. For students interesting in getting started, I recommend the following reading material in sequence (with a basic knowledge of electromagnetic fields assumed).

Recommended technical books and articles (in order from novice to advanced):
  1. Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light (ISBN: 0691037442), by John D. Joannopoulos, Robert D. Meade, and Joshua N. Winn., Princeton University Press, 2005.
  2. J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, and D. R. Smith, “Controlling Electromagnetic Fields,” Science, vol. 312, no. 5781, pp. 1780 – 1782, 2006.
  3. M. Notomi, “Theory of light propagation in strongly modulated photonic crystals: Refractionlike behavior in the vicinity of the photonic band gap,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 62, no. 16, pp. 10696 – 10705, 2000.
  4. Roadmap on Photonic Crystals (ISBN: 1402074646), edited by Susumu Noda and T. Baba, Springer, 2003.
  5. Hong-Gyu Park, Se-Heon Kim, Soon-Hong Kwon, Young-Gu Ju, Jin-Kyu Yang, Jong-Hwa Baek, Sung-Bok Kim, and Yon-Hee Lee, "Electrically Driven Single-Cell Photonic Crystal Laser" Science , vol. 305, no. 1444 – 1447, 2004.
  6. Electromagnetic Theory and Applications for Photonic Crystals (ISBN: 0849336775), edited by Kiyotoshi Yasumoto, CRC, 2005.
Recommended “easy-reading” books to broaden the mind:
  1. Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse: The Quest for the Quantum Computer (ISBN: 0684814811), by Julian Brown, Simon & Schuster, 2000.
  2. e: The Story of a Number (ISBN: 0691058547), by Eli Maor, Princeton University Press, 1998.
  3. Early Astronomy (ISBN: 0387948228), by Hugh Thurston, Springer, 1994.
Useful free software:
  1. MIT Photonic Bands, a frequency-domain band (dispersion) and electromagnetic mode solver for periodic dielectric structures
  2. MEEP, a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation software package
  3. POV-Ray, an open-source ray tracing program that can create photorealistic images of complex scenes. It is capable of handling negative-index materials.
  4. MegaPOV, unofficial extensions to the above program to enhance photorealism
Other Interests
  • Piano music (especially ragtime and Dixieland)
  • Restoring antique appliances, like acoustic phonographs and tube radios
  • Hiking and visiting scenic parks, like Yellowstone National Park, Mount Ranier National Park, etc.
Publications
Invited Journal Publications:
  1. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., T. Kim, P. O. Leisher, A. V. Giannopoulos, and K. D. Choquette, “Progress in Photonic Crystal Vertical Cavity Lasers,” (invited) IEICE Transactions on Electronics, vol. E88-C, no. 5, pp. 944-950, May 2005.
Journal Publications:
  1. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., P. O. Leisher, and K. D. Choquette, “Single mode photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 88, no. 9, pp. 091114 – 091116, 2006.
  2. P. O. Leisher, A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., D. Siriani, and K. D. Choquette, “Loss and index guiding in single-mode proton-implanted holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” IEEE J. of Quant. Elect., vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 1091 – 1096, 2006.
  3. P. O. Leisher, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Single-mode 1.3-mm photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser,” IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 18, no. 20, pp. 2156 – 2158, 2006.
  4. T. Kim, P. O. Leisher, A. J. Danner, R. Wirth, K. Streubel, and K. D. Choquette, “Photonic crystal structure effect on the enhancement in the external quantum efficiency of a red LED,” IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 18, no. 17, pp. 1876 – 1878, 2006.
  5. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. C. Lehman, A. J. Danner, P. O. Leisher, A. V. Giannopoulos, and K. D. Choquette, “In-phase evanescent coupling of two-dimensional arrays of defect cavities in photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no. 8, pp. 081119 – 081121, 2006.
  6. A. C. Lehman, J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, P. O. Leisher, and K. D. Choquette, “Relative phase tuning of coupled defects in photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 88, no. 2, pp. 021102 – 021103, 2006.
  7. Y. K. Kim, A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “Focused ion beam nanopatterning for optoelectronic device fabrication,” IEEE J. of Sel. Topics in Quant. Elect., vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1292 – 1298, 2005.
  8. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. C. Lehman, A. J. Danner, P. O. Leisher, A. V. Giannopoulos, and K. D. Choquette, "Coherent transverse coupling in photonic crystal vertical cavity laser arrays," C. Lei and K. D. Choquette; Editors, Proc. SPIE, vol. 6132, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers X, 61320I (8 pages), 2006.
  9. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, and K. D. Choquette, “Coherent coupling of two-dimensional arrays of defect cavities in photonic crystal vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 86, no. 20, pp. 201104-1 – 201104-3, 2005.
  10. T. S. Kim, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Enhancement in the external quantum efficiency of a blue light-emitting diode by a photonic crystal surface grating,” Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 20, pp. 1138 – 1139, 2005.
  11. P. O. Leisher, A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “Proton implanted single mode holey vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers,” Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 18, pp. 1010 – 1011, 2005.
  12. A. J. Danner, T. S. Kim, and K. D. Choquette, “Single fundamental mode photonic crystal vertical cavity laser with improved output power,” Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 325 – 326, 2005.
  13. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., N. Yokouchi, and K. D. Choquette, “Transverse modes of photonic crystal vertical-cavity lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 84, no. 7, pp. 1031-1033, 2004.
  14. T. S. Kim, A. J. Danner, D. M. Grasso, E. W. Young, and K. D. Choquette, “Single fundamental mode photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting laser with 9 GHz bandwidth,” Electronics Letters, vol. 40, no. 21, pp. 1340 - 1341, 2004.
  15. A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, "Photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers," C. Lei, K. D. Choquette and S. P. Kilcoyne; Editors, Proc. SPIE, vol. 5364, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers VIII, pp. 92 - 96, 2004.
  16. N. Yokouchi, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Two-dimensional photonic crystal confined vertical cavity surface emitting lasers,” J. of Sel. Topics in Quant. Elect., vol. 9, no. 5, 1439-1445, 2003.
  17. N. Yokouchi, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser operating with photonic crystal seven-point defect structure,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 82, no. 21, pp. 3608-3610, 2003.
  18. A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, J. J. Raftery, Jr., N. Yokouchi, and K. D. Choquette, “Coupled-defect photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting lasers,” Electronics Letters, vol. 39, no. 18, pp. 1323 - 1324, 2003.
  19. N. Yokouchi, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Lateral mode control of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers using two-dimensional photonic crystal structure,” C. Lei, S. P. Kilcoyne; Editors, Proc. SPIE, vol. 4994, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers VII, pp. 216 – 221, 2003.
  20. N. Yokouchi, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, "Etching depth dependence of the effective refractive index in 2-dimensional photonic crystal patterned vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structure," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 82, no. 9, pp. 1344-1346, 2003.
  21. A. Danner and F. Sonnemann, "Review of quench simulations for the protection of LHC main dipole magnets," CERN publication LHC-ICP-00-199, European Organization for Nuclear Research, October, 1999.
Invited Conference Presentations:
  1. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, A. V. Giannopoulos, E. C. Shyu, and K. D. Choquette, “In-phase coherently coupled 2D arrays of defect cavities within a photonic crystal VCSEL” (invited), CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CThW5, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2005.
  2. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. J.. Raftery, Jr., and P. O. Leisher, “Photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers and arrays,” (invited) 5th IEEE Conference on Nanotechnology, Proceedings, pp. 27 - 28, Nagoya, Japan, July 2005.
  3. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. J.. Raftery, Jr., and P. O. Leisher, “Photonic crystal confined vertical cavity lasers and arrays,” (invited) Integrated Photonics Research and Applications, ItuG2, San Diego, CA, USA, April 2005.
  4. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. J.. Raftery, Jr., and P. O. Leisher, “Photonic Crystal Vertical Cavity Lasers,” (invited) CLEO-PR (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics-Pacific Rim), CTuJ3-7-INV, Tokyo, Japan, July 2005.
Conference Presentations:
  1. A. J. Danner, J. K. Hwang, M. M. Sigalas, H. W. Wan, B. Z. Wang, and S. J. Chua, “Efficient light-emitting diodes fabricated with a spin-on photonic crystal surface grating,” presented at CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), Long Beach, CA, USA, 2006.
  2. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, A. C. Lehman, P. O. Leisher, A. V. Giannopoulos, K. D. Choquette, “A parametric study of coherent coupling in photonic crystal VCSELs with 2x1 arrangements of defect cavities,” presented at CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), Long Beach, CA, USA, 2006.
  3. P. O. Leisher, D. F. Siriani, J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Loss and index guiding in single-mode holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” presented at CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), Long Beach, CA, USA, 2006.
  4. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. C. Lehman, A. J. Danner, P. O. Leisher, A. V. Giannopoulos, and K. D. Choquette, "Coherent transverse coupling in photonic crystal vertical cavity laser arrays," to be presented at Photonics West, San Jose, CA, USA, Jan. 2005.
  5. P. O. Leisher, A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “Proton implanted single mode holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” IEEE/LEOS (Lasers and Electro-Optics Society) 18th Annual Meeting, WC2, Sydney, Australia, 2005.
  6. K. D. Choquette, J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, and P. O. Leisher, “Coherently Coupled Photonic Crystal Vertical Cavity Lasers for Communication Applications,” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA March 2005.
  7. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., P. O. Leisher, E. A. Yamaoka, S. R. Lala, M. L. Hwang, and K. D. Choquette, “Loss and the accuracy of the photonic crystal model in holey VCSELs,” CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CThW2, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2005.
  8. T. S. Kim, A. J. Danner (presenter), and K. D. Choquette, “Photonic Crystal GaN Light Emitting Diode,” CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CMR3, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2005.
  9. A. J. Danner, T. S. Kim, D. M. Grasso, E. Y. Young, and K. D. Choquette, “Small signal modulation of a single mode photonic crystal vertical cavity surface-emitting laser,” 19th International Semiconductor Laser Conference, Conference Digest, pp. 125 - 126, Matsue, Japan, Sept. 2004.
  10. A. J. Danner, “ホーリーVCSELの発振特性 (Lasing characteristics of photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers),” International Symposium on Optical Communications, Hakone, Japan, 2004.
  11. A. J. Danner, T. S. Kim, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “Optimization of photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers,” 9th Optoelectronics and Communications Conference (OECC), Yokohama, Japan, July 2004.
  12. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and J. C. Lee, “Vertical cavity photonic crystal coupled-defect lasers for optical interconnects,” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Proceedings, vol. 3, pp. 1770 - 1775, Big Sky, MT, USA 2004.
  13. A. Danner, J. Raftery, P. Leisher, and K. D. Choquette, “Scaling characteristics of photonic crystal vertical-cavity lasers,” IEEE/LEOS (Lasers and Electro-Optics Society) 17th Annual Meeting, TuC4, Puerto Rico, 2004.
  14. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “High single mode power in photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers,” CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CTuP, San Francisco, CA, USA 2004.
  15. J. J. Raftery, Jr., A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, and K. D. Choquette, “2-dimensional coherent arrays of photonic crystal vertical cavity defect lasers,” CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CTuR, San Francisco, CA, USA 2004.
  16. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, and J. J. Raftery, Jr., “Photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers,” Photonics West, 5364-11, San Jose, CA, USA, Jan. 2004.
  17. K. D. Choquette, A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, and J. J. Raftery, “Vertical cavity photonic crystal coupled-defect lasers”, International Symposium on Microelectronics, MEMS, and Nanotechnology Conference, 5277-22, Perth, Australia, Dec. 2003.
  18. A. J. Danner, J. C. Lee, J. J. Raftery, Jr., N. Yokouchi, and K. D. Choquette, “Coherently coupled photonic crystal VCSELs,” LEOS 16th Annual Meeting, WL3, Tucson, AZ, USA, 2003.
  19. A. J. Danner, N. Yokouchi, J. J. Raftery, Jr., and K. D. Choquette, “Focused ion beam post-processing for single mode photonic crystal vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers,” Device Research Conference, V.B-6, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2003.
  20. A. J. Danner, J. J. Raftery, Jr., U. Krishnamachari, J.C. Lee, N. Yokouchi, and K. D. Choquette, “Scaling of small-aperture photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers,” CLEO Postdeadline session (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CThPDC9, Baltimore, MD, USA 2003.
  21. A. J. Danner, N. Yokouchi, and K. D. Choquette, “Single mode photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers incorporating etch depth dependence,” CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics), CThP3, Baltimore, MD, USA 2003.
  22. N. Yokouchi, A. J. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, “Lateral mode control of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers using two-dimensional photonic crystal structure,” Photonics West, 4994-32, San Jose, CA, USA, Jan. 2003.
  23. N. Yokouchi, A. Danner, and K. D. Choquette, "Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers laterally confined by 2-dimensional photonic crystals," IEEE/LEOS Summer Topical Meetings, TuP2, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada, 2002.
  24. K. D. Choquette and A. J. Danner, “Vertical cavity photonic integrated circuits,” International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium (ISDRS), Washington, D.C., USA, 2001.