Minimum Dielectric-Resonator Mode Volumes

We show that global lower bounds to the mode volume of a dielectric resonator can be computed via Lagrangian duality. State-of-the-art designs rely on sharp tips, but such structures appear to be highly sub-optimal at nanometer-scale feature sizes, and we demonstrate that computational inverse design offers orders-of-magnitude possible improvements. Our bound can be applied for geometries that are simultaneously resonant at multiple frequencies, for high-efficiency nonlinear-optics applications, and we identify the unavoidable penalties that must accompany such multiresonant structures.