Nanophotonics, Plasmonics, and Metamaterials

ABOUT THE COURSE:The course provides a detailed introduction to the three cornerstones of the future photonic technologies, viz., nanophotonics, plasmonics, and metamaterials, covering their fundamentals and latest advancements. The basics and applied aspects of nanophotonics i.e. controlling, guiding, and manipulating electromagnetic radiation at the nanoscale will be discussed. The course will first cover the principles of photonic crystals, metal optics, surface plasmon resonance and their applications. Later on, the course will focus on metamaterials and metasurfaces, covering their fundamentals and various applications such as tunable devices, absorbers, hyper lens, super lens, beam steering, and in cloaking and transformation optics. The course will also introduce new alternative materials for nanophotonics and summarize different techniques for fabrication of these nanophotonic devices.INTENDED AUDIENCE: B.Tech (Final year), M.Tech, M.Sc, and PhD students & Members of R&D in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Nanotechnology and Material EngineeringPREREQUISITES: Basic electromagnetic theory in undergraduate curriculum.INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Intel, IBM, Lumerical, Thorlabs, Photon Design, Comsol. Tejas Networks, DRDO, ISRO, DAE labs, and any Opto-electronics based industries.

Week 1 :IntroductionMotivation, brief introduction to nanophotonics, plasmonics and metamaterials; Overview of current status of research in academia and industry in the fields of nanophotonics, plasmonics, and metamaterialsWeek 2 :Fundamentals of nanophotonics 1:Electromagnetic theory of light; Electromagnetic properties of material; Constitutive relationships and material parameters; Electromagnetic waves in dielectric mediaWeek 3 :Fundamentals of nanophotonics 2:Polarization of light; Reflection and refraction; Fresnel equations; Absorption, dispersion, and scattering of electromagnetic wavesWeek 4 :Electromagnetic waves in periodic structures 1Matrix theory of dielectric layered media; Fabry–Perot Etalon; Bragg Grating; 1D Photonic crystals — Bloch modes, Dispersion relation and photonic band structureWeek 5 :Electromagnetic waves in periodic structures 2Real and reciprocal lattices; 2D and 3D Photonic crystals; Bandgap engineering; Devices based on photonic crystals; Emerging Applications of Photonic CrystalsWeek 6 :Metal Optics 1:Optical properties of metals; Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP) on planar interfaces; SPP modes for shape resonances, gratings, and light scattering from rough surfaces; Applications of SPPs: Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), Sensing, Subwavelength properties in light-guiding, spasers, and plasmonic circuitry, plasmonic subwavelength enhanced transmission of lightWeek 7:Metal Optics 2:Plasmonic nanoparticles; Localized plasmon resonances; Chain of plasmonic nanoparticles; Applications of localized plasmon resonances: SERS, Sensing, optical nanoantennas and plasmonic waveguides, biomedical applications, tunable plasmonic devicesWeek 8 :Metamaterials 1: FundamentalsMetamaterials concept; Effective medium theories: Maxwell–Garnett theory, Bruggeman theory, Anisotropic mixtures: multilayers and wire media; Negative-permittivity and negative-permeability metamaterials; Double-NegativeMaterials;
Week 9 :Metamaterials 2: ApplicationsPerfect absorbers; Super lens, Hyperbolic metamaterials and application in high-resolution imaging: Hyper lens; Tunable photonic metamaterial based devicesWeek 10 :Metasurfaces:Introduction to Metasurfaces; Frequency selective surfaces; Guided mode resonances (GMR); Examples of metasurfaces and GMR based devices; Perfect control over transmission and reflection using metasurfacesWeek 11 :Transformation Optics:Introduction to Transformation Optics; Transformation principle; Invisibility Cloaks; Carpet cloaking; Transformation optics and metamaterials, Introduction to alternative materialsWeek 12 :Realization of Nanophotonic Devices:Nanofabrication: Thin films —Physical methods: Evaporation, Sputtering, Pulsed laser deposition; Chemical methods: chemical vapor deposition (CVD), Atomic layer deposition; Epitaxy: Metal organic CVD, Molecular beam epitaxy; Lithography —photolithography, Non-optical lithography; Pattern transfer; Nanophotonic characterization: brief overview of near-field microscopy and other related methods