Stanford Scientists Trap and Redirect Light with Resonant Nanoantennas

Researchers in the lab of professor Jennifer Dionne at Stanford University have structured ultrathin silicon chips into nanoscale bars to resonantly trap light, and then release or redirect it later. “We’re essentially trying to trap light in a tiny box that still allows the light to come and go from many different directions,” researcher Mark Lawrence said, of the method that slows and directs light particles at will. A central component of these “high-quality-factor“ or “high-Q“ resonators is an extremely thin layer of silicon, which traps light efficiently and has low absorption in the near-infrared — the spectrum that the researchers are interested in controlling. The silicon rests...