NanoOptics
Group leader: prof.dr. Kobus Kuipers
The central aim of the NanoOptics Group is the control of light propagation at the nanoscale. The goal is to explore the natural frontiers of light control: length scales of the wavelength or below and time scales approaching that of the optical cycle. The light flows are manipulated with plasmonic nanostructures and photonic crystals. Topics of special interest are slow light and nonlinear optics.
The nanophotonics investigations are carried out with both far-field techniques and phase-sensitive, time-resolved near-field microscopy, which allows a unique visualization of the behaviour of light at the nanoscale.
Read more>>
- We usually think of light in terms of either travelling waves or standing waves. There is however another way that light can behave. If light impinges on the interface between two dielectric media under an angle bigger than the critical angle as predicted by Snell's law, all of the light will be reflected and thus no light will be transmitted through the interface. This is the so-called total internal reflection. However, it turns out that light does extend across the interface in the form of an exponentially decaying electromagnetic field. This is referred to as the evanescent field.
