This Perspective surveys the state-of-the-art and future prospects of science and technology employing the nanoconfined light (nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics) in combination with magnetism. We denote this field broadly as nanoscale magnetophotonics. We include a general introduction to the field and describe the emerging magneto-optical effects in magnetoplasmonic and magnetophotonic nanostructures supporting localized and propagating plasmons. Special attention is given to magnetoplasmonic crystals with transverse magnetization and the associated nanophotonic non-reciprocal effects, and to magneto-optical effects in periodic arrays of nanostructures. We give also an overview of the applications of these systems in biological and chemical sensing, as well as in light polarization and phase control. We further review the area of nonlinear magnetophotonics, the semiconductor spin-plasmonics, and the general principles and applications of opto-magnetism and nano-optical ultrafast control of magnetism and spintronics.

A major challenge facing plasmon nanophotonics is the poor dynamic tunability. A functional nanophotonic element would feature the real-time sizable tunability of transmission, reflection of light's intensity or polarization over a broad range of wavelengths, and would be robust and easy to integrate. Several approaches have been explored so far including mechanical deformation, thermal, or refractive index effects, and all-optical switching. Here we devise an ultrathin chiroptical surface, built on two-dimensional nanoantennas, where the chiral light transmission is controlled by the externally applied magnetic field. The magnetic field-induced modulation of the far-field chiroptical response with this surface exceeds 100% in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges, opening the route for nanometer-thin magnetoplasmonic light-modulating surfaces tuned in real time and featuring a broad spectral response.

Light polarization rotators and nonreciprocal optical isolators are essential building blocks in photonics technology. These macroscopic passive devices are commonly based on magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr polarization rotation. Magnetoplasmonics, the combination of magnetism and plasmonics, is a promising route to bring these devices to the nanoscale. We introduce design rules for highly tunable active magnetoplasmonic elements in which we can tailor the amplitude and sign of the Kerr response over a broad spectral range.

Plasmon rulers are an emerging concept in which the strong near-field coupling of plasmon nanoantenna elements is employed to obtain structural information at the nanoscale. Here, we combine nanoplasmonics and nanomagnetism to conceptualize a magnetoplasmonic dimer nanoantenna that would be able to report nanoscale distances while optimizing its own spatial orientation. The latter constitutes an active operation in which a dynamically optimized optical response per measured unit length allows for the measurement of small and large nanoscale distances with about 2 orders of magnitude higher precision than current state-of-the-art plasmon rulers. We further propose a concept to optically measure the nanoscale response to the controlled application of force with a magnetic field.

We report on a comprehensive study of electrical and optical properties of efficient near-infrared p⁺-i-n⁺ photodetectors based on large ensembles of self-assembled, vertically aligned i-n⁺ InP nanowires monolithically grown on a common p⁺ InP substrate without any buffer layer. The nanowires have a polytype modulated crystal structure of wurtzite and zinc blende. The electrical data display excellent rectifying behavior with an ideality factor of about 2.5 at 300 K. The ideality factor scales with 1/T, which possibly reflects deviations from classical transport models due to the mixed crystal phase of the nanowires. The observed dark leakage current is of the order of merely ∼100 fA/nanowire at 1 V reverse bias. The detectors display a linear increase of the photocurrent with reverse bias up to about 10 pA/nanowire at 5 V. From spectrally resolved measurements, we conclude that the photocurrent is primarily generated by funneling photogenerated carriers from the substrate into the NWs. Contributions from direct excitation of the NWs become increasingly important at low temperatures. The photocurrent decreases with temperature with an activation energy of about 50 meV, which we discuss in terms of a temperature-dependent diffusion length in the substrate and perturbed transport through the mixed-phase nanowires.