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Recent advances in inverse-design approaches for discovering optical structures based on desired functional characteristics have reshaped the landscape of nanophotonic structures, where most studies have focused on how light interacts with nanophotonic structures only. When quantum emitters (QEs), such as atoms, molecules, and quantum dots, are introduced to couple to the nanophotonic structures, the light–matter interactions become much more complicated, forming a rapidly developing field – quantum nanophotonics. Typical quantum functional characteristics depend on the intrinsic properties of the QE and its electromagnetic environment created by the nanophotonic structures, commonly represented by a scalar quantity, local-density-of-states (LDOS). In this work, we introduce a generalized inverse-design framework in quantum nanophotonics by taking LDOS as the bridge to connect the nanophotonic structures and the quantum functional characteristics. We take a simple system consisting of QEs sitting on a single multilayer shell–metal–nanoparticle (SMNP) as an example, apply fully-connected neural networks to model the LDOS of SMNP, inversely design and optimize the geometry of the SMNP based on LDOS, and realize desirable quantum characteristics in two quantum nanophotonic problems: spontaneous emission and entanglement. Our work introduces deep learning to the quantum optics domain for advancing quantum device designs; and provides a new platform for practicing deep learning to design nanophotonic structures for complex problems without a direct link between structures and functional characteristics.

The electromagnetic local density of states (LDOS) is crucial to many aspects of photonics engineering, from enhancing emission of photon sources to radiative heat transfer and photovoltaics. We present a framework for evaluating upper bounds on the LDOS in structured media that can handle arbitrary bandwidths and accounts for critical wave scattering effects. The bounds are solely determined by the bandwidth, material susceptibility, and device footprint, with no assumptions on geometry. We derive an analytical expression for the maximum LDOS consistent with the conservation of energy across the entire design domain, which upon benchmarking with topology-optimized structures is shown to be nearly tight for large devices. Novel scaling laws for maximum LDOS enhancement are found: the bounds saturate to a finite value with increasing susceptibility and scale as the quartic root of the bandwidth for semi-infinite structures made of lossy materials, with direct implications on material selection and design applications.

We exploit InSb’s magnetic-induced optical properties to design THz sub-wavelength antennas that actively tune the radiative decay rates of dipole emitters at their proximity. The proposed designs include a spherical InSb antenna and a cylindrical Si-InSb hybrid antenna demonstrating distinct behaviors. The former dramatically enhances both radiative and non-radiative decay rates in the epsilon-near-zero region due to the dominant contribution of the Zeeman-splitting electric octupole mode. The latter realizes significant radiative decay rate enhancement via magnetic octupole mode, mitigating the quenching process and accelerating the photon production rate. A deep-learning-based optimization of emitter positioning further enhances the quantum efficiency of the proposed hybrid system. These novel mechanisms are promising for tunable THz single-photon sources in integrated quantum networks.

Dissipation, often associated with plasmons, leads to decoherence and is generally considered fatal for quantum nonlinearities and entanglement. Counterintuitively, by introducing a dissipative plasmonic nanoantenna into a typical cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system, we unveil the wide existence of the atom-photon quasi-bound state (qBS), a kind of exotic eigenstate with anomalously small decay, in the hybrid plasmonic-photonic cavity. To derive the analytical condition of atom-photon qBS, we formulate a quantized two-mode model of the local density of states by connecting the interacting uncoupled cavity modes to the macroscopic QED. With resonant plasmon-photon coupling, we showcase the single-atom qBS that improves the efficiency of single-photon generation over one order of magnitude; and the two-atom qBS that significantly enhances spontaneous entanglement generation compared with a bare photonic cavity. Notably, such single-atom and multi-atom qBS can be simultaneously accessed in realistic plasmonic-photonic cavities, providing a versatile platform for advanced quantum technologies, such as quantum light sources, quantum computation, and quantum information.

The lattice-matched system (GaAs)n/(AlAs)n superlattice is calculated for two different values of n=3 and 6 within ab initio pseudopotential density-functional theory using Quantum Espresso package of program exploiting the ultra-soft atomic pseudopotentials. Their band offsets, which is a well-known and inextricable problem at semiconductor interfaces, have been determined in this paper and were compared with experimental results. Discontinuities of valance and conduction bands were obtained as 0.46 and 0.25 eV, respectively. The averaged self-consistent potential across the [001] interface in GaAs is about 0.061 eV higher than its value in AlAs. The local density of states for both superlattices was also studied. The effect of different factors e.g. orientation, transitivity, and composition dependence is reported in this study. We found that, in the [110] direction of GaAs/AlAs superlattice, the dependence of the band offset on the orientation is negligible. The calculated band gap of is linearly dependent on aluminum content.

Probing light–matter interaction at the nanometer scale is one of the most fascinating topics of modern optics. Its importance is underlined by the large span of fields in which such accurate knowledge of light–matter interaction is needed, namely nanophotonics, quantum electrodynamics, atomic physics, biosensing, quantum computing and many more. Increasing innovations in the field of microscopy in the last decade have pushed the ability of observing such phenomena across multiple length scales, from micrometers to nanometers. In bioimaging, the advent of super-resolution single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) has opened a completely new perspective for the study and understanding of molecular mechanisms, with unprecedented resolution, which take place inside the cell. Since then, the field of SMLM has been continuously improving, shifting from an initial drive for pushing technological limitations to the acquisition of new knowledge. Interestingly, such developments have become also of great interest for the study of light–matter interaction in nanostructured materials, either dielectric, metallic, or hybrid metallic-dielectric. The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent advances in the field of nanophotonics that have leveraged SMLM, and conversely to show how some concepts commonly used in nanophotonics can benefit the development of new microscopy techniques for biophysics. To this aim, we will first introduce the basic concepts of SMLM and the observables that can be measured. Then, we will link them with their corresponding physical quantities of interest in biophysics and nanophotonics and we will describe state-of-the-art experiments that apply SMLM to nanophotonics. The problem of localization artifacts due to the interaction of the fluorescent emitter with a resonant medium and possible solutions will be also discussed. Then, we will show how the interaction of fluorescent emitters with plasmonic structures can be successfully employed in biology for cell profiling and membrane organization studies. We present an outlook on emerging research directions enabled by the synergy of localization microscopy and nanophotonics.

In this paper, we calculate the local density of states using dyadic Green’s functions for a defective one-dimensional photonic crystal of finite size composed of alternating air and semiconductor layers. Herein, spatial periodicity is broken as one of the semiconductor layers increases its layers. In this study, we consider that the refractive index of semiconductor materials, such as GaAs, Si, and SiO2, changes with the amount of the applied pressure. We determined the existence of a confined mode within the cavity with a maximum value of the local density of states. The results show that, as pressure increases, the local density of states decreases within the confined mode. However, for the GaAs cavity, the results reveal that increased pressure favors the appearance of a larger number of confined modes at frequencies within the second photonic band gaps.

We propose theoretically a tunable circular Bragg microcavity to enhance the intensity of the emission band of interest in rare-earth-doped materials and to suppress the unwanted emission bands which produce noise and diminish the efficiency of the emission of interest. The surrounding of the microcavity comprises of alternating layers of high-index and low-index materials. The luminescent ions such as neodymium Nd3+ having different emission bands in different host materials are placed in the microcavity, and single emission band with stronger intensity can be observed, and other emission bands are suppressed. The wavelength of the single emission peak can be changed from one wavelength to other wavelengths by varying the refractive index, radius of the microcavity and thus modifying the local density of states of the microcavity. The fluorescence branching ratio of emission band of interest can be enhanced from 10% to 100% due to suppression of the unwanted emission bands.

In this paper, we used green's function approach in microscopic theory to investigate a resonant tunneling diode (RTD). We introduced the detailed Hamiltonian for each part of the photovoltaic p-i-n system, then by calculating the green's function components in tight-binding approximation, we calculate local density of states and current-voltage characteristic of the p-i-n structure. Our results show a non-Ohmic behavior and negative differential resistance in RTD. As a result of a longitudinal electric field, the local density of states varies by changing the applied potential. Moreover, we study the effect of changing the physical parameters on the current of the device. Entering quantum dots in the middle of device causes a negative differential resistance, which is a consequence of resonant tunneling phenomenon.

We propose a method to probe the local density of states (LDOS) of atomic systems that provides both spatial and energy resolution. The method combines atomic and tunneling techniques to supply a simple, yet quantitative and operational, definition of the LDOS for both interacting and non-interacting systems: it is the rate at which particles can be siphoned from the system of interest by a narrow energy band of non-interacting states contacted locally to the many-body system of interest. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are a natural platform for implementing this broad concept to visualize the energy and spatial dependence of the atom density in interacting, inhomogeneous lattices. This includes models of strongly correlated condensed matter systems, as well as ones with non-trivial topologies.