The ability to artificially grow in a controllable manner at nanoscale, from
modern deposition techniques, complex structural configurations made with
metallic, polar and semiconductors materials raises today the issue of the
"best" achievable inner structure to tailor the near-field properties of a
nanostructured medium. In the present work we make a step towards the rational
design of these materials by reporting numerical experimentations demonstrating
the possibility of identifying structural configurations of layered
metallodielectric media specifically designed to control the electromagnetic
density of states in the close vicinity of their surface. These results could
find broad applications in near-field technologies.Comment: to appear in Appl. Phys. Let