Nanometre sized structures made of semiconductors, insulators, and metals and grown by modern growth technologies or by chemical synthesis exhibit novel electronic and optical phenomena due to the confinement of electrons and photons. Strong interactions between electrons and photons in narrow regions lead to inhibited spontaneous emission, thresholdless laser operation, and Bose-Einstein condensation of exciton-polaritons in microcavities. Generation of sub-wavelength radiation by surface plasmon-polaritons at metal-semiconductor interfaces, creation of photonic band gaps in dielectrics, and realization of nanometer sized semiconductor or insulator structures with negative permittivity and permeability, known as metamaterials, are further examples in the area of Nanophotonics. The studies help develop spasers and plasmonic nanolasers of subwavelength dimensions, paving the way to use plasmonics in future data centres and high-speed computers working at THz bandwidth with less than a few fJ/bit dissipation.
The present book is aimed at graduate students and researchers providing them with an introductory textbook on Semiconductor Nanophotonics. It gives an introduction to electron-photon interactions in Quantum Wells, Wires, and Dots and then discusses the processes in microcavities, photonic band gap materials, metamaterials, and related applications. The phenomena and device applications under strong light-matter interactions are discussed, mostly by using classical and semi-classical theories. Numerous examples and problems accompany each chapter.
Prasanta Kumar Basu, Retired Professor, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Bratati Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Rikmantra Basu, Assistant Professor, ECE Department, National Institute of Technology Delhi
Prasanta Kumar Basu (B.Sc honours in Physics), B. Tech, M.Tech and Ph.D. (all in Radio Physics and Electronics) joined the RPE department of Calcutta University as a Lecturer in 1971. His research has been in semiconductors. He is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow and he also worked as Visiting Professors in McMaster University, Canada, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, and TIFR, India. He was in several administrative positions in RPE department. After his retirement from CU in 2011, he worked as a UGB BSR Faculty fellow, then as Visiting Professor in IIT Kharagpur and finally as an investigator in a joint Indo Taiwan project. Since 2019, he is engaged in honorary collaborative research and book writing in RPE department.
Bratati Mukhopadhyay received the B.Sc (Hons in Physics)., B.Tech., M.Tech., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India, in 1994, 1997, 1999, and 2007, respectively. She joined Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, CU, as a Lecturer in 2008. Her research area includes Group IV photonics, transport and scattering in semiconductor nanostructures, nanoscale FETs, etc. In addition, she is one of the authors of a book "Semiconductor Laser Theory" (CRC Press, 2015). She teaches CMOS analog circuit, VLSI design, guidedwave photonics, and photonic devices, in addition to semiconductor related subjects. She also supervises a number of B.Tech. and M.Tech. projects and guides several Ph.D. students.
Rikmantra Basu (B.Sc honours in Physics), B. Tech (IT), M.Tech (RPE) and Ph.D. (CUNN) all from Calcutta University joined as an Assistant Professor in the ECE department of BITS Pilani in 2013 and then in the ECE department of NIT Delhi in 2014. His research is in Semiconductor photonic devices, Group IV photonics and plasmonics, sensors at mid IR using GeSn alloys, and biosensors on graphene. He is the recipient of URSI Young Scientist award and he worked as visiting Scientist in Bristol University, UK and National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. He has guided and is guiding several M. Tech and Ph.D. students.
