At the early stage of quantum mechanics, classical optical phenomena were used to form intuitive concepts of quantum interference and diffraction and assisted in development of wave mechanics foundation. Later on, quantum theory of complex structures has revealed many principal phenomena that have their counterparts in classical electromagnetism. Progress in nanophotonics is shown to result essentially from systematic transfer of ideas and concepts from quantum solid state theory to optics. A brief historical overview of the principal nanophotonic concepts and its quantum counterparts is provided and the possible reasons are discussed why quantum effects have been transferred to electromagnetism but not vice versa. Based on existing opto-electronic twins, at least 2 cases of non-identified effects are outlined. These are regularities of electron spectra in fractal heterostructures to be transferred from optics to quantum physics, and, surface Tamm states to be transferred from quantum physics to nanophotonics.

Date Published: 31 July 2007
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 6728, ICONO 2007: Novel Photonics Materials; Optics and Optical Diagnostics of Nanostructures, 672839 (31 July 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.752457

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6728:
ICONO 2007: Novel Photonics Materials; Optics and Optical Diagnostics of Nanostructures
Oleg Andreevich Aktsipetrov; Sergey V. Gaponenko; Nikolay I. Zheludev; Vladimir M. Shalaev, Editor(s)