Surface Plasmon Nanophotonics

Discusses a class of photonic devices, known as surface plasmon nanophotonic structures. This book highlights several discoveries, while providing a discussion of the underlying physics, the nanofabrication issues, and the materials considerations involved in designing plasmonic devices with new functionality. The development of advanced dielectric photonic structures has enabled tremendous control over the propagation and manipulation of light. Structures such as waveguides, splitters, mixers, and resonators now play a central role in the telecommunications industry. This book will discuss an exciting new class of photonic devices, known as surface plasmon nanophotonic structures. Surface plasmons are easily accessible excitations in metals and semiconductors and involve a collective motion of the conduction electrons. These excitations can be exploited to manipulate electromagnetic waves at optical frequencies ("light") in new ways that are unthinkable in conventional dielectric structures. The field of plasmon nanophotonics is rapidly developing and impacting a wide range of areas including: electronics, photonics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. The book will highlight several exciting new discoveries that have been made, while providing a clear discussion of the underlying physics, the nanofabrication issues, and the materials considerations involved in designing plasmonic devices with new functionality. The book is aimed at researchers and students interested in entering the field of plasmon nanophotonics, while serving as a reference to scientists already active in this area of research. It is written at the level of a first year graduate student with some background in electromagnetic theory and working knowledge of Maxwell's equations.