Surface Effects in Nanophotonic Waveguides

In OPN’s December “Optics in 2015” review of interesting research conducted in the previous year, Stefano Grillanda and Francesco Morichetti explore the crucial impact of surface effects in the behavior of light in nanoscale optoelectronic waveguides, such as those in integrated photonic chips—creating a metal-like “skin” of conductivity on the surface of the waveguide.