“This book is a must-read and a great resource for anyone interested in the optical science and engineering of aperiodic platforms. With contributions from some of the renowned experts in this topic, the book brings a wealth of knowledge in theoretical, numerical and experimental aspects of wave interaction with aperiodic nanostructures, and offers many important engineering applications of such optical media. It is a timely reference on a scientifically and technologically important area in the growing fields of nanophotonics and plasmonics.”

Prof. Nader Engheta - University of Pennsylvania, USA

“What an amazing book to read! In Optics of Aperiodic Structures, edited by Prof. Luca Dal Negro, the mysterious beauty of aperiodic order can be appreciated throughout. The book introduces the reader to the fascinating world of light in aperiodic, yet fully ordered, photonic structures such as fractals, quasi-crystals, and more general media rigorously designed and fabricated using current materials and device technology. Many of the recent breakthroughs in the theoretical, computational, and experiential aspects of aperiodic nanophotonics and plasmonics are clearly discussed in this book along with numerous engineering applications to optical sensing, light sources, photovoltaic and nonlinear optical devices. This volume is essential reading for all researchers in both industry and academia who are interested in exploring aperiodic optical media as a novel platform to advance optical sciences and photonics technology.”

Prof. Diederik Wiersma - LENS, University of Florence, Italy

“Here Prof. Dal Negro and coauthors do for spatial optics what Manfred Schroeder had done for spatial acoustics with his priceless book Number Theory in Science and Communication. One gets theory presented and discussed ostensibly just for the sake of its delightfulness, but all sorts of applications—such as a fiendishly clever antenna or a just-for-this-purpose mesh—effortlessly tumble out as if from a horn of plenty. Good integration of tutorial and reference material for a leading-edge subject.”

Prof. Tom Toffoli - Boston University, USA

• Presents a clear picture of the current state of affairs in aperiodic photonics and plasmonics


• Covers the fundamental, computational, and experimental aspects of deterministic aperiodic structures


• Focuses on one-dimensional and two-dimensional deterministic aperiodic structures that are fully compatible with current nanofabrication and device technologies


• Illustrates numerous engineering applications uniquely enabled by the manipulation of aperiodic order in optical nanostructures

In recent years, optics of aperiodic structures—artificial optical media designed on the basis of manipulation of aperiodic order—has garnered a great deal of scientific interest due to the growing number of engineering applications in nano-optics, plasmonics, and photonics technologies. Deterministic aperiodic structures, in particular, can be efficiently generated using algorithmic rules that interpolate in a tunable fashion between random and periodic media, offering unique opportunities to tailor light-matter interaction, electromagnetic transport, light scattering, and wave-localization phenomena. The structural complexity of such media profoundly influences their linear and nonlinear optical properties and gives rise to novel functionalities.

This book presents state-of-the-art contributions from a number of leading experts that actively work worldwide in the rapidly growing, highly interdisciplinary, and fascinating fields of aperiodic optics and complex photonics. Edited by Luca Dal Negro, a prominent researcher in these areas of optical science, the book covers the fundamental, computational, and experimental aspects of deterministic aperiodic structures, as well as numerous device and engineering applications to dense optical filters, nanoplasmonics photovoltaics and technologies, optical sensing, light sources, and nonlinear optics.

About the Editor:
Prof Luca Dal Negro received the Laurea in physics, summa cum laude, in 1999 and a Ph.D. semiconductor physics from the University of Trento, Italy, in 2003. After his Ph.D., he joined MIT as a post-doctoral research associate. Since January 2006 he has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in the Material Science Division at Boston University (BU). He is currently associate professor and a member of the Photonics Center at BU. Prof. Dal Negro manages and conducts research projects on light scattering from aperiodic media, nano-optics and nanoplasmonics, silicon-based nanophotonics, and computational electromagnetics of complex structures. He has authored and coauthored 122 technical articles and received several awards, including the College of Engineering Excellence in Research Award and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award.

Advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level students in optics, photonics, nanotechnology, and materials science and engineering; researchers in academia and industry, particularly those with an interest in nano-optics and unmerging device technologies.