Researchers from The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have introduced a type of polaritonic cavity that redefines the limits of light confinement. The work demonstrates an unconventional way of confining photons, overcoming traditional limits in nanophotonics.
Confining photons to increasingly small volumes has long been an area of interest for physicists. The natural length scale of the photon is the wavelength and when a photon is forced into a cavity much smaller than the wavelength, it effectively becomes more concentrated. This concentration enhances interactions with electrons, amplifying quantum processes within the cavity.
However, despite significant success in confining light into deep subwavelength volumes, the effect of dissipation, or optical absorption, remains a major obstacle. Photons in nanocavities are absorbed very quickly, much faster than the wavelength, and this dissipation limits the applicability of nanocavities to major applications in quantum technology.
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