Thursday, March 6, 2008
7PM, MIT Stata Center, Room 32-123
Prof.
Evelyn Hu, UCSB
Many of us have seen how very fine gratings formed in materials may alter the apparent color of light. ‘Nanophotonics’ embodies the similar idea of structuring a material at the nanoscale to achieve new optical behavior and controlled interactions between light and matter. Recent progress in nanofabrication allows us to create structures that can confine strong optical fields into very small volumes of materials (approximately equal to a cube whose side is the wavelength of light). This very strong interaction of light and its optical environment can produce dazzling new possibilities, among them: storing light; controlled ‘release’ of light, one photon at a time; slowing the velocity of light; and creating highly efficient sources of light. We will illustrate these possibilities using particular semiconductor nanostructures, and look ahead to further progress, challenges and opportunities in nanophotonics
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