Ultimate Limit of Light Extinction by Nanophotonic Structures
Journal article, 2015

Nanophotonic structures make it possible to precisely engineer the optical response at deep subwavelength scales. However, a fundamental understanding of the general performance limits remains a challenge. Here we use extensive electrodynamics simulations to demonstrate that the so-called f-sum rule sets a strict upper bound to the light extinction by nanostructures regardless their internal interactions and retardation effects. In particular, we show that the f-sum rule applies to arbitrarily complex plasmonic metal structures that exhibit an extraordinary spectral sensitivity to size, shape, near-field coupling effects, and incident polarization. The results may be used for benchmarking light scattering and absorption efficiencies, thus imposing fundamental limits on solar light harvesting, biomedical photonics, and optical communications.

plasmonics

Nanophotonics

extinction

f-sum rule

Author

Zhong-Jian Yang

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Bionanophotonics

Tomasz Antosiewicz

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Bionanophotonics

Ruggero Verre

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Bionanophotonics

F. J. G. de Abajo

Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST)

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies

Peter Apell

Chalmers, Applied Physics

Mikael Käll

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Bionanophotonics

Nano Letters

1530-6984 (ISSN) 1530-6992 (eISSN)

Vol. 15 11 7633-7638

Subject Categories

Physical Sciences

DOI

10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03512

More information

Created

10/8/2017