Nanophotonics or nano-optics is a component of nanotechnology that investigates the deportment of light on nanometer scales as well as interactions of nanometer-sized objects with light. Nanophotonics is withal considered a branch of electrical engineering, optics, and optical engineering well as being a branch of nanotechnology. Nanophotonics often includes metallic components that can convey and focus light through surface plasmon  polaritons

In 2013, one group of researchers introduced IPKISS as a simple software framework utilized for the design of nanophotonic components. A few subcomponents of a nanophotonic circuit are exhibited in The resulting contrivance consisted of submicrometer-wide silicon lines on top of a thick glass layer. Because silicon has a very high index of refraction, the submicron lines acted as waveguides for light: electromagnetic waves with wavelengths between 1.3 and 1.55 could peregrinate along these lines with little energy loss. By optimizing the geometry of the silicon, light can be manipulated. Surface plasmons offer subsidiary properties such as field localization and enhancement, high surface sensitivity, and sub-wavelength confinement, which have led surface plasmons into applications in, e.g., nanophotonics, biosensing, and integrated optical circuits. However, attenuation limits the surface plasmon propagation length, as these waves dissipate their energy primarily by absorption in the metal. Surface plasmon amplification is engendered by introducing optical gain into the dielectric through which these waves propagate. Surface plasmon amplifiers are envisaged as stand-alone components or as gain sections integrated with other plasmonic functions to compensate losses and ameliorate performance. Amalgamating amplification with feedback leads to surface plasmon oscillators which are of interest as sources of surface plasmons.