Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications

Considered one of the major fields of photonics of the beginning 21^st century, plasmonics offers the potential to confine and guide light below the diffraction limit and promises a new generation of highly miniaturized photonic devices. Offering both a comprehensive introduction to the field and an extensive overview of the current state of the art, "Plasmonics ? Fundamentals and Applications" should be of great value to the newcomer and to the experienced researcher.

Stefan Maier was born Germany in 1975. After studying physics at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TU Munich), he received a Master of Science in Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. In 2003, he obtained a PhD in Applied Physics at the same institute for work on metal nanoparticle plasmon waveguides. After a short postdoctoral period, he joined the University of Bath in 2004 as a lecturer. He is currently a Reader in the Department of Physics at Bath, and a member of the University's Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials CPPM.

SM's main research area is plasmonics and near-field optical microscopy, and his work has over the last 5 years attracted more than 450 citations. Apart from research, he is also very active in organizing symposia on plasmonics at international conferences (MRS, E-MRS), and has recently taught a summer school on nanophotonics in the Czech Republic.