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Maximal single-frequency electromagnetic response
DOI:10.1364/OPTICA.398715.png)
Abstract
En 中文
Modern nanophotonic and meta-optical devices utilize a tremendous number of structural degrees of freedom to enhance light-matter interactions. A fundamental question is how large such enhancements can be. We develop an analytical framework to derive upper bounds to single-frequency electromagnetic response, across near- and far-field regimes, for any materials, naturally incorporating the tandem effects of material- and radiation-induced losses. Our framework relies on a power-conservation law for the polarization fields induced in any scatterer. It unifies previous theories on optical scattering bounds and reveals new insight for optimal nanophotonic design, with applications including far-field scattering, near-field local-density-of-states engineering, optimal wavefront shaping, and the design of perfect absorbers. Our bounds predict strikingly large minimal thicknesses for arbitrarily patterned perfect absorbers, ranging from 50-100 nm for typical materials at visible wavelengths to micrometer-scale thicknesses for polar dielectrics at infrared wavelengths. We use inverse design to discover metasurface structures approaching the minimum-thickness perfect-absorber bounds. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
Keywords:
COMPLEX DIELECTRIC-CONSTANT
RADIATIVE HEAT-TRANSFER
OPTICAL-RESPONSE
RIGOROUS BOUNDS
INVERSE DESIGN
LIGHT
SCATTERING
OPTIMIZATION
ABSORPTION
LIMITS

