Research

Manipulation of light with dielectric media and metallic surfaces is not limited to traditional large-scale optics, like eyeglass lenses and looking glasses. Thus, metal-dielectric interfaces and metallic nanostructures support a variety of propagating and localized surface plasmons (SPs) – resonant oscillations of free electron density coupled to electromagnetic waves. Surface plasmons can confine and strengthen electric and magnetic fields oscillating at optical frequencies and enhance spontaneous emission and Raman scattering. On the other hand, last two decades witnessed rapid development of metamaterials – engineered materials comprised of sub-wavelength inclusions with rationally designed shapes, sizes, compositions and mutual orientations (commonly) embedded in a dielectric matrix. Nearly fantastic theoretical predictions and experimental demonstrations of metamaterials range from negative index of refraction to invisibility optical cloaking. Metamaterials can govern the rate the spectrum and the directionality, of spontaneous emission. More recently, it has been shown that metamaterials and, more generally, a variety of nanoscopic metal-dielectric structures can control scores of physical phenomena, including Förster energy transfer, van der Waals forces, and chemical reactions, which lie outside of a traditional electrodynamics domain. The phenomena above are of particular interest to our group.