Bound States in the continuum in photonics.

With examples of two parallel dielectric gratings and two arrays of thin parallel dielectric cylinders, it is shown that the interaction between trapped electromagnetic modes can lead to scattering resonances with practically zero width. Such resonances are the bound states in the radiation continuum first discovered in quantum systems by von Neumann and Wigner. Potential applications of such photonic systems include: large amplification of electromagnetic fields within photonic structures and, hence, enhancement of nonlinear phenomena, biosensing, as well as perfect filters and waveguides for a particular frequency, and impurity detection.