Phys.org August 24, 2018
An international team of researchers (USA – Vanderbilt University, IBM, France) developed a structure that’s part bowtie, part funnel that concentrates light powerfully and nearly indefinitely, as measured by a scanning near field optical microscope. Only 12 nanometers connect the points of the bowtie. What is special about their research is that the use of the bowtie shape concentrates the light so that a small amount of input light becomes highly amplified in a small region. We can potentially use that for low power manipulation of information on computer chips. Their approach opens the door to the extremely strong light-matter interaction regime with, simultaneously incorporating both an ultralow mode volume and an ultrahigh quality factor, that had remained elusive in optical resonators… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Team developed structure that’s part bowtie, part funnel that conducts light powerfully and indefinitely, as measured by a scanning near field optical microscope. Credit: Ella Maru Studio