Related papers: Fundamental limits in photonics and electromagneti…
Photonic devices play an increasingly important role in advancing physics and engineering, and while improvements in nanofabrication and computational methods have driven dramatic progress in expanding the range of achievable optical…
Nanoscale fabrication techniques, computational inverse design, and fields from silicon photonics to metasurface optics are enabling transformative use of an unprecedented number of structural degrees of freedom in nanophotonics. A critical…
Using sum rules and a new dipole-free sum-over-states expression, we calculate the fundamental limits of the dispersion of the real and imaginary parts of all electronic nonlinear-optical susceptibilities. As such, these general results can…
Optical force and torque provide unprecedented control on the spatial motion of small particles. A valid scientific question, that has many practical implications, concerns the existence of fundamental upper bounds for the achievable force…
Textbooks state that the successful application of Maxwell's Equations in physical optics problems requires light to interact with matter where any inhomogeneities are spaced by less than or equal to the wavelength of light; the 'dense'…
We develop an analytical framework to derive upper bounds to light--matter interactions in the optical near field, where applications ranging from spontaneous-emission amplification to greater-than-blackbody heat transfer show…
Absorption and scattering of electromagnetic waves by dielectric media are of fundamental importance in many branches of physics. In this Letter we analytically derived the ultimate upper limits for the absorbed and scattered powers by any…
The physics of light-matter interactions is strongly constrained by both the small value of the fine-structure constant and the small size of the atom. Overcoming these limitations is a long-standing challenge. Recent theoretical and…
The photon model of light has been known for decades to be self-inconsistent and controversial theory with numerous intrinsic conflicts. This paper revises the model and explores its applicability for description of classical…
Interactions between light and matter play an instrumental role in many fields of science, giving rise to important applications in spectroscopy, sensing, quantum information processing, and lasers. In most of these applications, light is…
Exotic forms of wave control have been emerging by engineering matter in space and time. In this framework, temporal photonic interfaces, i.e., abrupt changes in the electromagnetic properties of a material, have been shown to induce…
We firstly revisit the importance, naturalness and limitations of the so-called optical metrics for describing the propagation of light rays in the limit of geometric optics. We then exemplify their flexibility and nontriviality in some…
This work studies the limits of far and near-field electromagnetic response of sub-wavelength scatterers, like the unitary limit and of lossless scatterers, and the ideal absorption limit of lossy particles. These limit behaviors are…
We discuss the state-of-the-art and remaining challenges in the fundamental understanding and technology development for controlling light-matter interactions in nanophotonic environments in and away from thermal equilibrium. The topics…
Metamaterials are beginning to transform optics and microwave technology thanks to their versatile properties that, in many cases, can be tailored according to practical needs and desires. Although metamaterials are surely not the answer to…
Light scattering is one of the most established wave phenomena in optics, lying at the heart of light-matter interactions and of crucial importance for nanophotonic applications. Passivity, causality and energy conservation imply strict…
Near-field optics is an exciting frontier of photonics and plasmonics. The tandem of strongly localized fields and enhanced emission rates offers significant opportunities for wide-ranging applications, while also creating basic questions:…
Shannon's mathematical theory of communication defines fundamental limits on how much information can be transmitted between the different components of any man-made or biological system. This paper is an informal but rigorous introduction…
Information transfer through electromagnetic waves is an important problem that touches a variety of technologically relevant applications, including computing and telecommunications. Prior attempts to establish limits on optical…
We consider the physical limitations imposed on the information content of an image by the wave and quantum nature of light, when the image is obtained by illuminating a reflecting or transmitting planar object by natural---i.e., fully…