Optimizing Nanoparticle Designs to Reach Ideal Light Absorption

TL;DR

This paper introduces new formulas and semi-analytical methods for designing nanoparticles that achieve ideal light absorption, enabling tailored absorption at specific frequencies in the visible and near infrared spectrum.

Contribution

It provides the first analytic and semi-analytical tools for designing homogeneous and core-shell nanoparticles with ideal absorption properties.

Findings

Ideal absorption is achievable in homogeneous spheres with known materials at specific sizes and frequencies.

Core-shell nanoparticles can be designed for ideal absorption across a wide range of visible and near-infrared frequencies.

New formulas facilitate targeted light-matter interaction optimization.

Abstract

Ideal absorption describes a particular means of optimizing light-matter interactions with a host of potential applications. This work presents new analytic formulas and describes semi-analytical methods for the design of electric or magnetic ideal absorption in nanoparticles. These formulas indicate that ideal absorption is attainable in homogeneous spheres with known materials at specific sizes and frequencies. They also provide a means of designing core-shell particles to produce ideal absorption at virtually any frequency in the visible and near infrared range.