Fundamental Limits to Near-Field Optical Response over Any Bandwidth
Name
PhysRevX.9.011043.pdf
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1.71 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5c6bc88f1555f86d245e2ccfc5d05ffc
Author(s)
Shim, Hyungki
Fan, Lingling
Miller, Owen D.
Johnson, Steven G
Date Issued
March 2019
Journal
Physical Review X
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Shim, Hyungki, et al. “Fundamental Limits to Near-Field Optical Response over Any Bandwidth.” Physical Review X, vol. 9, no. 1, Mar. 2019. © 2019 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
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 transformative potential. Our framework connects the classic complex-analytic properties of causal fields with newly developed energy-conservation principles, resulting in a new class of power-bandwidth limits. These limits demonstrate the possibility of orders-of-magnitude enhancement in near-field optical response with the right combination of material and geometry. At specific frequency and bandwidth combinations, the bounds can be closely approached by canonical plasmonic geometries, with the opportunity for new designs to emerge away from those frequency ranges. Embedded in the bounds is a material “figure of merit,” which determines the maximum response of any material (metal, dielectric, bulk, 2D, etc.), for any frequency and bandwidth. Our bounds on local density of states represent maximal spontaneous-emission enhancements, our bounds on cross density of states limit electromagnetic-field correlations, and our bounds on radiative heat transfer (RHT) represent the first such analytical rule, revealing fundamental limits relative to the classical Stefan-Boltzmann law.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.011043
