To present 1) Fundamentals of electromagnetism of nanostructures, and
2) applications of artificial optical nanostructures, and eventually
3) Combination of these optical structures with basic structures for electronic confinement (quantum well and quantum dots) for enhanced light matter interaction (Purcell effect, etc.)

Propagation of waves in periodic media is at the heart of many physical phenomena, to start with the formation of bands for electrons in solids.

This course addresses the same issue in optics.

We start, in particular, with the notion of Bloch modes in optical artificial materials, that is materials structured at sub-wavelength scale. Thanks to the recent progresses in nanofabrication methods, such materials are massively investigated nowadays.

By analogy with electrons, we introduce the forbidden photonic band gap and also the idea of artificial materials. These latter lead in particular to the possibility of artificially synthesizing materials that display properties otherwise not found in nature.

Theoretical notions such as density-of-states (DOS), light-line ( aka light cone), slow light, etc. (are systematically illustrated by applications that have arisen from recent nanophotonics literature, notably :
- Photonic crystals (mainly 1D and 2D),
- metamaterial
- and diffractive optics.

The concept of enhanced light-matter interaction in nanoparticles or as a function of confinement in general, is substantiated : Purcell effect, light extraction, strong coupling. This is also an opportunity to describe along their main lines (i) the basic physics of electronic confinement in nanostructures and (ii) their elaboration methods as well.

The course is illustrated by a few training sessions (~3 x 1.5h) aimed at rackling with some more depth fundamental concepts such as
- slow light at photonic band edges or
- the regime of negative refraction, a more recent concept.

Requirements : Basics of waves, diffraction, guiding, semiconductors.

Evaluation mechanism : WRITTEN , partly based on papers We target a written partly based on scientific papers (3-4 pages) on applications, to be commented. This will be modulated according to the number of participants, however.

Last Modification : Friday 19 November 2010