Passive linear nanoscale optical and molecular electronics device synthesis from nanoparticles

Arrays of nanoparticles whose interactions can be characterized by hopping Hamiltonians can serve as excitation transmission lines. Here we show, that in addition suitable arrangements of nanoparticles can form beam splitters, phase shifters, and crossover splitters. With these elements, any discrete unitary transformation can be implemented on input modes via a network of nanoparticles in which all the components lie in the same plane. These nanoparticle networks can produce optical functionalities at a length scale much smaller than 1 μm.