Introduction to Nanophotonics

Introduction to Nanophotonics , Sergey V. Gaponenko Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2010. $78.00 (465 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-76375-2

The study of electronic and electromagnetic physics, specifically at the nanoscale, has become as exciting, productive, and fascinating as any other research area with which it competes for funding, graduate students, and audiences. Bulk materials have been studied for decades, but in the past 10 years or so, new fabrication processes and technologies have enabled the production of samples with well-defined, optical-wavelength-range structural properties. Those advances have opened up the field of nanophotonics, the discipline in which nanotechnology and nanoscience generate the photonic conditions necessary for controlled interactions between light and matter.

In Introduction to Nanophotonics, Sergey Gaponenko expertly and comprehensively introduces the key concepts, theory, and experiments that reflect the beauty of the photonic nanoworld. Despite the field’s diversity of topics, the book’s presentation is logical, elegant, and delightful: Gaponenko presents as coherent a journey through the fundamental models and components of the subject as one could hope to read in any authoritative introduction to the field. He is well-qualified to do that, having spent a decade at the Institute of Molecular and Atomic Physics in Minsk, Belarus, where he generated an impressive list of nanophotonics-associated publications.

Good scientists do not always make lucid and able writers. Gaponenko, however, demonstrates an effective style that engenders interest and provides genuine scientific clarity. Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students of physics, optical and electronic engineering, and materials science, the book also achieves a nearly perfect tone and pace, particularly in its discussions of historical scientific perspective and the development of key concepts and scientific theory. I think it will also be useful to researchers from other fields who are unfamiliar with the specific language and central theories of nanophotonics.

In part 1, “Electrons and Electromagnetic Waves in Nanostructures,” the author develops and then compares and contrasts wave-optics theory in periodically nanostructured systems and complex media to electron-wave mechanics in analogous systems. Though that is not an uncommon approach, Gaponenko’s detailed discussions here are, in my experience, unsurpassed. In part 2, “Light–Matter Interaction in Nanostructures,” the author develops some of the topic’s more specialized aspects. Particularly well presented is the final chapter describing plasmon-based light-scattering enhancement methods.

Although I do not hesitate to praise the many excellent aspects of Introduction to Nanophotonics, I do have two reservations about it. First, in terms of content, biological photonics, a major focus of one of my own research areas, is extraordinarily underrepresented—comprising less than a single page of text and three electron microscope images of mediocre quality. Second, the book’s black-and-white format with grayscale figures creates a rather unexceptional visual impact—I suspect that because they are rendered in black and white, many figures have lost some pedagogical clarity. By contrast, the clarity added by the full-color images and graphs of a comparable first-rate text, Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light (Princeton University Press, 2nd edition, 2008) by John Joannopoulos, Steven G. Johnson, Robert Meade, and Joshua Winn, is certainly one reason that book is on virtually every photonics student’s bookshelf. Professional researchers might believe that content outweighs appearance many times over, but students consider, and would benefit from, quality content and appearance. Cambridge University Press has missed the opportunity to make Gaponenko’s book unrivalled as a reference text in nanophotonics, not only in content and scope (which the author has managed himself), but also in visual impact and figure clarity.

In the introduction, the author describes his hope that college seniors will be successfully introduced to “the amazing world of nanophotonics” by going through his book. I am inclined to believe Introduction to Nanophotonics will do just that. I will certainly recommend it for the bookshelves of each of my students.