Confining light in deep subwavelength electromagnetic cavities
Journal article, 2010

We demonstrate that it is possible to confine electromagnetic radiation in cavities that are significantly smaller than the wavelength of the radiation it encapsulates. To this aim, we use the techniques of transformation optics. First, we present a "perfect cavity" of arbitrarily small size in which such confined modes can exist. Furthermore, we show that these eigenmodes have a continuous spectrum and that bending losses are absent, in contrast to what is observed in traditional microcavities. Finally, we introduce an alternative cavity configuration that is less sensitive to material imperfections and still exhibits deep subwavelength modes combined with high quality factor, even if considerable material losses are included. Such a cavity may be interesting for the storage of information in optical data processing and for applications in quantum optics.

cavity

transformation optics

subwavelength confinement

metamaterials

Author

Vincent Ginis

Philippe Tassin

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Theory

Costas M. Soukoulis

Irina Veretennicoff

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

24699950 (ISSN) 24699969 (eISSN)

Vol. 82 11 113102-

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Subject Categories

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.82.113102

More information

Created

10/7/2017