Silicon, the leading material in microelectronics during the last four decades, also promises to be the key material in the future. Despite many claims that silicon technology has reached fundamental limits, the performance of silicon microelectronics continues to improve steadily. The same holds for almost all the applications for which Si was considered to be unsuitable. The main exception to this positive trend is the silicon laser, which has not been demonstrated to date. The main reason for this comes from a fundamental limitation related to the indirect nature of the Si band-gap. In the recent past, many different approaches have been taken to achieve this goal: dislocated silicon, extremely pure silicon, silicon nanocrystals, porous silicon, Er doped Si-Ge, SiGe alloys and multiquantum wells, SiGe quantum dots, SiGe quantum cascade structures, shallow impurity centers in silicon and Er doped silicon. All of these are abundantly illustrated in the present book.

Silicon, the leading material in microelectronics during the last four decades, also promises to be the key material in the future. Despite many claims that silicon technology has reached fundamental limits, the performance of silicon microelectronics continues to improve steadily. The same holds for almost all the applications for which Si was considered to be unsuitable. The main exception to this positive trend is the silicon laser, which has not been demonstrated to date. The main reason for this comes from a fundamental limitation related to the indirect nature of the Si band-gap. In the recent past, many different approaches have been taken to achieve this goal: dislocated silicon, extremely pure silicon, silicon nanocrystals, porous silicon, Er doped Si-Ge, SiGe alloys and multiquantum wells, SiGe quantum dots, SiGe quantum cascade structures, shallow impurity centers in silicon and Er doped silicon. All of these are abundantly illustrated in the present book.

This book presents state-of-the-art contributions from a number of leading experts that actively work worldwide in the rapidly growing, highly interdisciplinary, and fascinating fields of aperiodic optics and complex photonics. Edited by Luca Dal Negro, a prominent researcher in these areas of optical science, the book covers the fundamental, computational, and experimental aspects of deterministic aperiodic structures, as well as numerous device and engineering applications to dense optical filters, nanoplasmonics photovoltaics and technologies, optical sensing, light sources, and nonlinear optics.

The development of advanced optical structures has enabled tremendous control over the propagation and manipulation of light waves. At the forefront of these advances is the development of micro- and nanostructured optical devices that have dimensions smaller than the wavelength of light. In particular, the engineering of light localization, optical dispersion and plasmonic fields in complex optical media has the potential to boost the scaling of optical technologies below the diffraction limit, opening unprecedented opportunities for basic and applied research. This book bridges three closely related research fields of nanoplasmonics, metamaterials and light localization in complex media. The goal is to share recent progress, identify critical problems and provide promising solutions for the next generation of photonic functionality. Topics include: metamaterials and superlenses; metamaterials; and optical nanoantennas and decay engineering.

The development of advanced optical structures has enabled tremendous control over the propagation and manipulation of light waves. At the forefront of these advances is the development of micro- and nanostructured optical devices that have dimensions smaller than the wavelength of light. In particular, the engineering of light localization, optical dispersion and plasmonic fields in complex optical media has the potential to boost the scaling of optical technologies below the diffraction limit, opening unprecedented opportunities for basic and applied research. This book bridges three closely related research fields of nanoplasmonics, metamaterials and light localization in complex media. The goal is to share recent progress, identify critical problems and provide promising solutions for the next generation of photonic functionality. Topics include: metamaterials and superlenses; metamaterials; and optical nanoantennas and decay engineering.