

Alexander Dmitriev Alexander Dmitriev "The entire field is still fairly unknown, and we are one of only a few research teams in the world currently looking specifically into light as nanoplasmonic resonances combined with magnetic nanostructures," says Alexander Dmitriev, associate professor of physics at Chalmers.



For a long time it has been deemed impossible to combine light and magnetism because of a frequency gap where light moves 10,000 times faster than magnetism reacts, which means they do not feel each other and cannot integrate. By capturing the light in what are known as nanoantennas, which are built over a surface, it is possible for the two to interact on the nanoscale. There are nanoplasmons in this artificially created surface of nanoantennas  in other words small units of electrons that when exposed to visible light, move or oscillate collectively and thus create enhanced and localised electromagnetic fields that can then be connected with magnetic materials via different types of magneto-optical effects.



"We want to attempt to force the light to become steerable using magnetism, and vice versa, and thus eliminate the frequency gap," says Alexander Dmitriev.