Localizing light at the nanometer scale

Optics Waves will propagate through a medium until scattering processes result in the excitation gradually dying away. Introducing disorder can affect that propagation by increasing the scattering, potentially reaching a point where transport is stopped. Typically, the length scale of the disorder is larger than the propagating waves. Herzig Sheinfux et al . now show that a stack of several-nanometer-thick layers of alternating high- and low-refractive-index material can result in the localization of light. Such deep-subwavelength structures could provide a route to manipulating light on the nanometer scale. Science , this issue p. [953][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aah6822