Challenges and Opportunities in Electromagnetic Metamaterials from Microwaves to Optics
| Date/Time: | Thursday, 29 Sep 2016 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Physics 18/19 |
| Phone: | 515-294-7377 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: Metamaterials have revolutionized our ways of manipulation electromagnetic fields and radiation: from light at visible frequencies, to terahertz radiation, down to microwaves at gigahertz frequencies, and even radiofrequency fields encountered in MRI imaging. Metamaterials are artificial effective media supporting propagating waves that derive their properties form the average response of deliberately designed and arranged, usually resonant scatterers with structural length-scales much smaller than the wavelength inside the material.
In this talk, I will briefly review the history of metamaterials and discuss the salient features of metamaterials, which give rise to their unique properties and underpin their technological promise. I will explore the differences between microwave and optical metamaterials, their connection to plasmonics, and discuss the specific challenges that arise from pushing the operating frequency of metamaterials to near-infrared and visible frequencies while simultaneously reducing their structural lenghtscale down to the nanoscale. I will discuss different approaches to address those challenges, recent progress and the current state of the art of optical metamaterials.