LMI Seminar: Topology in Nanophotonics - Additional optical degrees of freedom in light matter interactions

Abstract:

I am not going to talk about optical topological insulators. The talk will be devoted to the fundamental topological nature of the optical field and its implications mainly in nanphotonics. The talk will exemplify two important results of the light topology – one is optical vortices and the dramatic influence of their topological charge on light matter interactions e.g. in linear and nonlinear photoelectric effect. The second will be the emergence of additional photonic degrees of freedom due to the topology of the wavevector space – showing that the well-known SPR (surface plasmon resonance) is not a plasmon but rather a new degree of freedom, and why perfect imaging is possible.