Welcome

Welcome to the course on EEE 6405 Nanophotonics and Plasmonics. We are taking classes through Microsoft Teams and all communications for this course will be done through the class team of the course. This webpage will not be updated, and kept just for prospective students to have an idea about the course.

Class Schedule

Saturday 8am-11am Room EEE 625

2023 Notices

• We will have our first lecture on 08/07/2023 Saturday 8am. Please come to the class by 7:55 am, as we need to free up the room at exactly 10:30 am.

• Classes will be held offline with live lectures. Your physical presence will be needed for the class.

• ** In this year, the review article for final project should be of publishable quality to ensure that you receive the highest grade. **

• If you are retaking the course due to an I grade or a grade improvement, you must separately participate all assessments. Marks from previous year’s course will not carry forward.

Background

I completed my PhD from Purdue University in Summer of 2019. I had acquired knowledge on modelling, fabricating and characterizing plasmonic metasurfaces for my PhD work, creating the thinnest color hologram with epitaxial silver based metasurface at the time of publication. I am really grateful to my supervisor Prof. Alexandra Boltasseva for introducing me to the area, and my mentor, Prof. Vladimir Shalaev for introducing me to the area of nanophotonics through his course in Purdue. This course is heavily influenced by Prof. Shalaev’s course Nanophotonics and Metamaterial (freely available on Nanohub), which I attended as a first year graduate student in Purdue.

This course would introduce graduate students to the field of Nanophotonics and its great wonders. We will talk about light-matter interaction in the nano-scale, how to make devices that goes beyond the diffraction limit, their theory, application and design.

As a graduate level course, we would focus on active learning in the course, where you will participate in group projects and individual assignments to grasp the concepts and learn about the vast field. The course will be really useful if you are thinking about pursuing research in Nanophotonics, or want to know more about the field.

Syllabus

Interaction of light with material; wave equation in matter from Maxwell’s equations; Dielectric properties of insulators, semiconductors and metals; Interaction of light with microstructures and nanostructures; Optical properties of metal-dielectric composites; Photonic Crystals: Electromagnetic effects in periodic media; One-, two- and three-dimensional photonic crystals; Applications of photonic crystals: omni-directional reflection, light localization, photonic crystal fibers; Surface Plasmons: Surface plasmon polariton at single interface, multilayer system, localized surface plasmons; Excitation of surface plasmon polariton; Prism coupling, grating coupling; Application of surface plasmons; Sub-wavelength waveguides, plasmonic photovoltaics, plasmonic bio-sensors; Metamaterials: Electric metamaterials, magnetic metamaterials, negative index metamaterials, hyperbolic metamaterials.

Suggested Text Books

• John D. Joannopoulos, Steven G. Johnson, Joshua N. Winn, and Robert D. Meade, Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light second edition (Princeton Press, Freely available at MIT website)
• Stephen A Maier, Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications, Springer
• Wenshan Cai, Vladimir Shalaev, Optical Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications, Springer

Lesson Plan

(Subject to change based on student interest and class discussion)

08 Jul 2023 - Week 01 – Introduction

15 Jul 2023 - Week 02 – Light-Matter Interaction I

22 Jul 2023 - Week 03 – Light-Matter Interaction II

29 Jul 2023 - Week 04 – Discussion on Mid Term Presentation and Final Project

05 Aug 2023 - Week 05 – Photonic Crystals I

12 Aug 2023 - Week 06 – Photonic Crystals II

19 Aug 2023 - Week 07 – Mid Term Presentation I

26 Aug 2023 - Week 08 – Mid Term Presentation II

02 Sep 2023 - Week 09 – Metal Optics I

09 Sep 2023 - Week 10 – Metal Optics II

16 Sep 2023 - Week 11 – Applications of Plasmonics

23 Sep 2023 - Week 12 – Metamaterials

30 Sep 2023 - Week 13 – Final Project - I

07 Oct 2023 - Week 14 – Final Project - II

Grading Policy

• Midterm Presentation - 25%
• Final Project + Presentation - 40%
• Class Tests - 10%
• Final Examination - 25%

Incomplete Grade Policy

In this course, you will be given an I grade, ONLY if you complete the midterm and final presentation, and just fail to appear in the final exam due to reasons beyond your control. You must apply to Head of the Department within 1 week of commencement of the final exam. Failure to participate either the midterm or final projects would not be considered for I grade, and your grading would be done through the Grading criteria. Not participating in midterm or final project, as well as being absent in Final Exam will result in an F grade, regardless of the circumstances.

Expectation

It would be expected that by the end of the course, you are able to do a comprehensive review on a particular topic of interest and are able to effectively communicate it orally. Regular participation in class discussion is strongly encouraged. Although, preparing the class presentations and report would demand time and effort, hopefully, by successful completion of the work, you would have a publishable work, and we can discuss after the end of the semester if we can compile and publish the work.

It is expected that students sign an honour pledge for the class and refrain from plagiarising. All reports would be checked with turnitin plagiarism checker and any plagiarized work would be dealt with a “F” grade in the entire course.

Detailed Grading Policy

Class Test (10%)

There will be 4 class tests on the 4 broad topics of the course. Best 3 will be counted for 10% of the grade.

Midterm Presentation (25%)

Each student 10 minute offline/live presentation and 5 minutes question answer (points will be deducted for more than 12 minutes presentation) All students must attend the talks and participate in question answering.

Grading Rubric:

• Peer Grading (30)
• Instructor Grading (30)
• Active Participation (30)
• Punctuality (10)

Final Project + Presentation (40%)

For Final Project, you must do an original comprehensive literature review on a particular topic relevant to the course and write a minimum 1600 word Review Article on it, with at least 35 literature references.

Scope of write up (including but not limited to):

1. Broad introduction of the field
2. Present Challenges
3. Fabrication methods
4. Breakthrough publications
5. Significant applications

Instruction:

You need to form groups of * students. Each group will work on a particular scope. I will circulate a google form where you can give choice regarding the topics. Each group’s broad topic should be unique.

Once you choose broad the topic, you need to do choose a special topic from it (as for example, from Nanophotonic systems a special topic can be imaging with metasurface). Your subtopic should be unique in a sense that there is no other review paper on the particular subtopic. Prepare a short outline of the paper (Introduction, Conclusion, which topics you will be covering etc) do a literature search on the topic and create an outline of your paper. Deadline to submit the outline is 2 weeks.

After I okay the outline, you need to do further literature search and form your review on the topic. You are expected to write a publishable review on the topic. Here are some resources that might help you in the process:

Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Writing a review article

How To Write A Scientific Review Research Paper

To improve writing skill, I highly recommend the Kristin Sainani’s course from Stanford University, Writing in the Science. Complete week 1-5 of the course to improve your writing style.

Originality of work: The paper that you write must be an original work of your own writing. The goal of the assignment is for you to learn writing a review. The papers will be checked with plagiarism checking software. Any similarity with already published work will result in a failure (F) in the assignment. Read this article on avoiding plagiarism

If you choose to do so, I am willing to work on the final paper further with the possibility of publishing it in a peer-reviewed journal. This will be done after completion of the grading of the course to avoid any bias on grades.

Review Article LaTeX Template

The following overleaf project is exclusively made for this project. You MUST use this template to format the final submission of your project. https://www.overleaf.com/read/ftzjcnxdmytm. Please note that the individual contribution of each section must be clearly marked with the \contributingauthor{} macro

Review Article Grading Criteria and Rubric

Title and Introduction (10 points)

• Clarity and Relevance (3 points): Is the title clear and does it reflect the topic’s relevance to the course? Is the introduction engaging and informative?

• Scope and Significance (3 points): Does the introduction clearly define the scope of the review article and its significance in the context of the course?

• Thesis Statement (4 points): Is there a well-defined thesis statement that sets the direction for the review?

Literature Review (40 points)

• Comprehensiveness (15 points): Does the literature review include a comprehensive collection of relevant sources (30-50 references)? Is the selection of sources well-justified?

• Synthesis and Analysis (15 points): Does the review demonstrate the ability to synthesize and critically analyze the selected literature? Are key findings and trends identified?

• Integration with Course Content (10 points): How effectively does the literature review integrate with the course content? Does it contribute to the course’s learning objectives?

Summary Figures and Tables (10 points)

• Summary Figure (5 points): Is there a clear and informative summary figure that visually represents the key findings or concepts discussed in the review?

• Summary Table (5 points): Is there an organized and concise summary table that highlights important details from the reviewed literature?

Organization and Clarity (15 points)

• Structure (5 points): Is the article well-organized with clear sections (e.g., introduction, literature review, discussion)? Is there a logical flow of ideas?

• Clarity of Expression (5 points): Is the writing clear, concise, and free from jargon? Are technical terms explained where necessary?

• Transitions (5 points): Are there smooth transitions between paragraphs and sections, making it easy for the reader to follow the argument?

Quality of Figures (10 points)

• Clarity and Relevance (5 points): Are the figures clear, relevant, and effectively used to support the content of the review?

• Originality and Creativity (5 points): Do the figures demonstrate originality and creativity in visually presenting information?

Individual Contribution (25 points)

• Contributions (15 points): Each team member’s individual contributions are clearly identified within the text. Each student’s contribution should align with their respective responsibilities.

• Quality of Contribution (10 points): The individual contributions should demonstrate depth and relevance to the overall review.

Conclusion and Recommendations (10 points)

• Summary (5 points): Does the conclusion effectively summarize the key findings and insights from the literature review?

• Recommendations (5 points): Are there clear recommendations or implications based on the review’s findings?

References and Citations (10 points)

• Accuracy (5 points): Are citations and references consistently formatted following a recognized citation style (e.g., APA, IEEE)? Are all sources properly credited?

• Relevance (5 points): Are all references relevant to the topic, and do they contribute to the overall quality of the review?

Overall Quality (30 points)

• Originality and Depth (10 points): Does the review exhibit original thought and in-depth analysis? Does it go beyond summarizing existing knowledge?

• Engagement (10 points): Does the review article engage the reader and maintain their interest throughout?

• Formatting and Aesthetics (10 points): Is the article properly formatted in the given LaTeX template and aesthetically pleasing?

Total (150 points)

• Group Contribution (50 points): Assess group collaboration and whether each member fulfilled their roles and responsibilities.

• Individual Contribution (25 points): Evaluate individual contributions based on the clarity and quality of each student’s work within the article.

• Content and Elements (75 points): Assess the quality and completeness of the review article, including figures, tables, organization, and clarity.

Grading Scale:

• 135-150 points: Excellent
• 120-134 points: Very Good
• 105-119 points: Good
• 90-104 points: Fair
• Below 90 points: Needs Improvement