Light Interacting with Structures

doi:10.1117/3.2582796.ch4

Book: Introducing Photonics

Author(s): Brian Culshaw

Published: 2020

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2582796.ch4

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

In the previous chapters we explored the essential features of the interactions between light and homogeneous materials. In fact, we may have cheated a little by already looking in Chapter 2 at the optical characteristics of a planar interface between dissimilar homogeneous materials and in Chapter 3 by discussing the device implications of structures such as photodetectors. The present chapter is dedicated to expanding this discussion into, initially, nonplanar interfaces, and thereafter examining the behaviour of material structures and how this varies as the structural dimensions, compared with the optical wavelength, are progressively reduced.