Advanced Applications in Nanophotonics

Nanophotonics is a fast-growing area of both scientific significance and practical value for applications. Nanophotonics studies the interaction between light and electronic systems in nanomaterials and nanostructures as well as the behavior of light in nanometer scales. It covers many hot topics such as plasmonics, two-dimensional materials, and silicon photonics. Increasing attention is given to the area and nanophotonics is expected to have significant impact on future technology advances. This thesis work focuses on three aspects of nanophotonics. The first aspect is in exploring the nonlocal effect and surface correction for nanometer-length-scale plasmonic structures. Plasmonics is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and free electrons in a metal. It exploits the unique optical properties of metallic nanostructures to enable routing and manipulation of light at the nanoscale, where nonlocal effect becomes important. Here we introduce a new surface hydrodynamic model for plasmon propagation at interfaces, which incorporates both nonlocality and surface contributions. This surface correction is calculated via a discontinuity in the normal component of th