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NANOPHOTONICS

Confining light to the atomic scale

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 442–443 (2018)Cite this article

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A graphene sheet near a metal nanoantenna squeezes infrared photons into a subnanometric gap, pushing the limits of nanophotonics.

The future of light-based technologies relies on the miniaturization of optical components to achieve faster, more efficient and more sensitive optoelectronic devices. It hinges on our ability to shrink light in at least one dimension while allowing it to propagate in other directions. One approach to confine photons to a scale much smaller than the free-space wavelength (λ0) consists of forming surface plasmon-polaritons (electromagnetic waves bound to a metal–dielectric interface). However, there is a trade-off: strong spatial confinement results in shorter propagation lengths. The origin of the relation between confinement and losses is the Landau damping, the excitation by the tightly confined surface wave of electron–hole pairs in the metal that causes loss of energy stored in the plasmon. Now, writing in Science, Alcaraz Iranzo et al. have managed to confine light to the ultimate limit, that is, an atomically thin layer, while guiding it for hundreds of nanometres1.

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Fig. 1: Confinement of light with graphene and metals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics and Institute for Photonic Integration, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Alberto G. Curto & Jaime Gómez Rivas

  2. Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, DIFFER, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jaime Gómez Rivas

Authors
  1. Alberto G. Curto
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  2. Jaime Gómez Rivas
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Correspondence to Alberto G. Curto or Jaime Gómez Rivas.

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Curto, A.G., Gómez Rivas, J. Confining light to the atomic scale. Nature Nanotech 13, 442–443 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0166-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0166-3

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