Dear Colleagues,

A study of the optical properties of nanomaterials is essential in terms of fundamental and practical perspectives. Surface and dimensional confinement effects can significantly alter the optical response, crystal, and electronic structure (band gap engineering) of the structure compared to its bulk counterpart. In turn, nanomaterials can manifest a variety of strong plasmonic and photonic optical resonances that enhance the strength of light–matter interaction. The latter can also be enhanced through the appropriate design of nanostructures with a given periodic arrangement and shape. The interference effects, symmetry-breaking, or non-trivial topology, can lead to the photonic bandgap opening and give rise to highly localized states of light in such materials. Thus, nanomaterials providing strong light localization can control spontaneous emission rate (Purcell effect) and enhance their nonlinear optical response, which is essential for harmonic generation, wave mixing, and all-optical switching. Thus, nanostructures are promising platforms for future quantum optoelectronic applications.

The high surface-to-volume ratio of nanomaterials and, thus, the strong effect of the local environment on the optical and electronic properties provides outstanding advantages for sensor applications (e.g. single-molecule sensing). Functional optical nanomaterials enable the implementation of both active and passive photonic devices and building blocks operating beyond the diffraction limit, such as nanoscale light emitters and detectors, waveguides, frequency mixers, and nonlinear frequency converters.

Modern fabrication approaches involve several advanced technologies combining the bottom-up and top-down approaches, which provide the fabrication of nanostructures with nanometer-scale precision controlled sizes, shapes, and compositions. Material systems consist of (but are not limited to): epitaxial nanoheterostructures and quantum dots, perovskite and complex oxide nanostructures, carbon materials, 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures, all-dielectric, plasmonic and hybrid nanostructures, and composite and colloidal nanostructured materials.

This Special Issue provides a venue for researchers to discuss the recent progress of nanofabrication techniques for the fabrication of functional optical nanomaterials, as well as their fundamental experimental and computational studies that enable the development of new emerging photonic and optoelectronic applications.

Dr. Ivan Mukhin
Dr. Vladimir V. Fedorov
Guest Editors

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• light confinement
• band gap engineering
• waveguides
• optical nanoantennas
• nanoheterostructures
• nonlinear response
• III-V
• 2D materials
• perovskites
• organic materials