Theory of extreme optical concentration in all-dielectric waveguides

Abstract

We introduce transversely structured all-dielectric waveguides which exploit the vectorial nature of light to achieve extreme sub-wavelength confinement in high index dielectrics, enabling characteristic mode dimensions below $\lambda_0^2$/1,000 without metals or plasmonics. We also derive the metric of optical concentration and show its convenient usage in characterizing enhanced linear and non-linear interactions at the nanoscale. This work expands the toolbox of nanophotonics and opens the door to new types of ultra-efficient and record performing linear and nonlinear devices with broad applications spanning classical and quantum optics.