Photonics and Nanophotonics

In a general sense Photonics encompasses the vast field of science and technology that involves the generation of light, absorption of light, emission of light, processing of light in various devices having diverse dimensions. For direct vision, the wavelength of light approximately lies in the range of electromagnetic radiation from 400 nm to 700 nm. Beyond direct human perception, ultraviolet and near infrared regimes falling within the range of electromagnetic radiation from 100 nm to 1 to 2 micrometers are also being explored for many photonic applications. Light has spatial as well as temporal domains. When the dielectric permittivity of the medium of the photnic devices is inhomogeneous, spatial inhomogeneity of light sets in, thereby leading to multiple scattering and interference of light. Thus the propagation of light wave in the medium can be effectively controlled by properly manipulating the spatial inhomogeneities of the given medium. For various photonic application inhomogeneities in the space of the given medium ranging from 10 to 100 nm to a few micrometers, are considered to be important as they are comparable to the wavelength of light.

Electrons play crucial role of information carriers between light and matter in various photonic devices. Electrons have the split personality of wave properties in terms of wavelength and corpuscular properties in terms of mass and charge. Thus by proper manipulation of the interaction of light with matter, information processing speed can be increased substantially. The interaction of light with matter can be effectively modified when the spatial inhomogeneities that are present in the medium of various photonic devices are not negligible when compared to the electron wavelength. Variations in the electric and magnetic fields or inhomogeneity in electronic charge or electronic mass displacement can contribute to the spatial inhomogeneities for electrons.

 When the spatial inhomogeneities can be extended to the atomic or sub atomic level, the interaction of light with matter becomes the perrogative of various processes that are involved in the electron subsystem of atoms. The atoms in turn may form molecules and solids. Hence nanophotnics can be characterized as the science and technology of confined light waves in complex media and confined electron waves in various nanostructured solids that in turn determine a plethora of versatile physical phenomena.

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