Co-sponsored by The Nanostructures Lab, The Tiny Tech Club and Techlink. 

Plasmonics: Photonic Devices in Nanostructure Arrays
that Beat the Diffraction Limit

Professor Harry Atwater

Harvard - Gordon McKay Professor, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Caltech - Howard Hughes Professor and Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science (On Leave)

Atwater Research Group

Background Papers for Talk:

"Guiding Light" by Harry Atwater. spie's oe magazine, July 2002. 

"Plasmonics - A Route to Nanoscale Optical Devices" by Stefan A. Maier, Mark L. Brongersma, Pieter G. Kik, Sheffer Meltzer, Ari A. G. Requicha, and Harry A. Atwater. Adv. Mater. 2001, 13, No. 19, October 2

"Local Detection Of Electromagnetic Energy Transport Below The Diffraction Limit In Metal Nanoparticle Plasmon Waveguides" by Stefan A. Maier  , Pieter G. Kik , Harry A. Atwater, Sheffer Meltzer , Elad Harel, Bruce E. Koel, and Ari A.G. Requicha. Accepted, Nature Materials 2003

Since development of the light microscope in the 16^th century, optical device size and performance has been limited by diffraction.  Optoelectronic devices of today are much bigger than the smallest electronic devices for this reason.   However the diffraction limit can be circumvented via design of -plasmonic- optoelectronic device components with spatial confinement of light  at dimensions less than 10% of the wavelength.  Such plasmonic devices exploit the dipole-dipole coupling at the plasmon frequency between nanoscale metal particles in particle chain arrays, and the dispersion relations for these structures indicate the tendency for electromagnetic excitations to couple between electric dipoles rather than radiate into free space.  Light can also be propagated around sharp corners and through nanoscale networks -- impossible in conventional optical waveguides.  Thus there appears to be no fundamental scaling limit to the size and density of photonic devices, and ongoing work is aimed identifying important device performance criteria in the subwavelength size regime. 

Ultimately it may be possible to design a class of subwavelength-scale optoelectronic components (waveguides, sources, detectors, modulators) that could form the building blocks of an optical device technology that is scaleable to molecular dimensions, with potential imaging, spectroscopy and interconnection applications in computing, communication and chemical/biological detection.

Harry Atwater (Ph.D. ) Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics, Harvard University.  

Professor Atwater's research interests center around fundamental and applied research in synthesis, properties and processing of materials for use in the electronic, photonic, and electro/opto/mechanical devices and circuits of the 21st century.  Current major research efforts center on 1. multimaterial integration via layer transfer of single-crystal piezoelectric and electrooptic oxides as well as III-V compound semiconductors on silicon; 2. thin film photovoltaic materials and devices, including thin film silicon and III-V compound photovoltaic heterostructures 3. nanocrystal electronic and optoelectronic devices, including silicon nanocrystal nonvolatile memories and electrooptic devices, as well as subwavelength-scale photonic devices based on plasmon energy localization in ordered arrays of metal nanocrystals.

He has consulted extensively for industry and government, and has actively served the materials community in various capacities, including MRS Meeting Chair (1997), MRS President (2000), AVS Electronic Materials and Processing Division Chair (1999), Gordon Conference Chair (2001).   Outside the materials world, he enjoys coaching soccer teams for his sons, ages 8 and 5.

©2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology