We developed a very general analytic decomposition of the electromagnetic response of complex nanostructures in terms of continuous spectra of plane waves and discrete sets of modes. This unique aspect of our theory and its high numerical efficiency allow us to “design” the quantum vacuum and optimize any quantum or classical process that involves complex nanostructures. We identify the optimal nanostructure for the label-free detection in the ultraviolet of weakly fluorescent molecules that are very important in Medicine and Biology.

This has been a topic in a number of our published articles.

D. McArthur and F. Papoff, “The effect of oxidation on the far field scattering of aluminium patch antennae from visible to UV”, International Journal of Optics, 2019, 9687803, 5 p (2019)

B. Hourahine, D. McArthur, F. Papoff, “Principal Modes of Maxwell’s Equations”, in “The Generalized Multipole Technique for Light Scattering”, Wriedt, T. and Eremin, Y. (eds.), Springer International Publishing AG, Vol. 99, 34 p (2018)

D. McArthur, F. Papoff, “Gap enhanced fluorescence as a road map for the detection of very weakly fluorescent emitters from visible to ultraviolet”, Sci. Rep. 7, 14191 (2017)

D. McArthur, B. Hourahine, F. Papoff, “Enhancing ultraviolet spontaneous emission with a designed quantum vacuum”, Opt. Exp. 25, 4162-4179 (2017)

Additional information can also be found on our SSD group website, here.