Numerical modeling of active plasmonic nanoparticles

Enhanced scattering and light localization beyond the diffraction limit due to plasmon resonance in metallic nanoparticles is a well known phenomena and has been applied for a wide range of useful applications including nanoparticle waveguides, bio-sensors and several others. Based on the classical Mie theory it can be shown that by enclosing an active media in a nanoparticle, metallic losses can be overcome and a nanoparticle can be made to radiate by itself. This result can extend the use of plasmonic nanoparticles far beyond the current limitations and pave the way for lossless plasmonic waveguides, energy storage devices and nanolasers. This research aims to investigate, in theory and using numerical techniques, how these applications can be realized.

Ph.D. Seminar topic Analytical and Numerical Modeling of Subwavelength Plasmonic-waveguide Components for Nanophotonic Applications

Recently, in optics there has been a surge of interest in miniaturized metallic structures
that allow sub-wavelength control of electromagnetic energy in the infrared and visible
bands of the spectrum. This results an emerging field of science known as plasmonics,
which has plethora of applications such as nanoscale optical interconnects,
chemical/bio-sensors, high-resolution microscopy, etc.
This research aims to investigate various plasmonic waveguide-based optical
components in terms of equivalent transmission-line networks. This representation
allows one to use classical network analysis tools in microwave engineering to obtain
analytical expressions that describe the transmission response of useful devices in
nanophotonics. The derived formulae provide rapid design optimization paths unlike the
computationally expensive and time consuming numerical simulations.