Metamaterials and Plasmonic optics provide mechanisms for controlling and taming electrons and electromagnetic waves in unprecedented ways. As the field of metamaterial reaches a certain level of development, new directions and novel vistas are appearing in the horizon. Modularization and parameterization of metamaterials may be exploited to provide new functionalities and possibilities stemming from such interesting platforms. These may include “meta-systems” that can be formed on the metamaterial paradigms, and new functionalities may result from proper combinations of meta-systems and metamaterials. In my group we have been exploring various features and characteristics of these concepts, topics, and directions in metamaterials, and we have been investigating new classes of applications such paradigms may provide. Some of the features of interest include nonlinearity, anisotropy, chirality, non- reciprocity, and non-locality. We have been developing the concept of “optical metatronics”, i.e. metamaterial-inspired optical nanocircuitry, in which the three fields of “electronics”, “photonics” and “magnetics” can be merged together. In such a paradigm, the concept of metamaterials and plasmonics optics can be exploited to bridge the gaps among these fields, to modularize, standardize, and parameterize some of the optical and electronic phenomena, and to transplant concepts from one field into another. In optical metatronics, the nanostructures with specific values of permittivity and permeability may
act as the optical lumped circuit elements at the nanoscale, analogous to the circuit elements in RF electronics. Nonlinearity in metatronics can also provide us with novel optical nonlinear lumped elements. Optical nanoantennas can link the “macroworld” with such optical metatronics. We have also been exploring how metamaterials can be exploited to control the flow of photons, as possibly one-way flow of photons. The concept of metatronics has now been extended to other platforms such as graphene as a new paradigm for metatronic circuitry and also as
one-atom-thick metamaterials and one-atom-thick transformation optical devices. Extreme-parameter metamaterials, such as epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) and mu-near- zero (MNZ) metamaterials have also offered unprecedented characteristics in electromagnetic wave propagation. In this series of lectures, I will discuss various topics in the fields of electromagnetic metamaterials and plasmonic optics, will present recent research findings, and will forecast future directions and possibilities in these fields.
About the Speaker
Prof. Nader Engheta received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of
Tehran, Tehran, Iran, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA. He is the H. Nedwill
Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with affiliation in the departments of
Electrical and Systems Engineering, Bioengineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and
Physics and Astronomy. After spending one year as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Caltech and four years as a Senior Research Scientist at Kaman Sciences Corporation’s Dikewood Division, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences. He was the Graduate Group Chair of Electrical Engineering from 1993 to His current research interests and activities span over a broad range of areas
including metamaterials and plasmonics, nanooptics and nanophotonics, nanocircuits and
nanostructures modeling, graphene photonics, one-way flow of photons, bio- inspired/biomimetic
polarization imaging and reverse engineering of polarization vision, minia“Mblcreees ednatiraee hrturized antennas and nanoantennas, hyperspectral sensing, biologically-based visualization and physics of sensing and
display of polarization imagery, fields and waves phenomena, fractional operators and fractional paradigm in electrodynamics. He has guest edited/co-edited several special issues, including the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications Special Issue on Wave Interaction with Chiral and Complex Media in 1992, the Journal of the Franklin Institute Special Issue on Antennas and Microwaves in 1995, the Wave Motion Special Issue on Electrodynamics in Complex Environments in 2001, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION Special Issue on Metamaterials in 2003, the Solid State Communications Special Issue on Negative Refraction and Metamaterials for Optical Science and Engineering in 2008, the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics Special Issue on Metamaterials in 2010, and the Proceedings of IEEE Special Issue on Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications in Microwaves and Optical Regimes in 2011. He co-edited the book Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations (Wiley-IEEE Press, 2006). Dr. Engheta is a Guggenheim Fellow, an IEEE Third Millennium Medalist, a Fellow of IEEE, American Physical Society (APS), Optical Society of America (OSA), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the SPlE-International Society for Optical Engineering. He is a member of Sigma Xi, Commissions B, D, and K of the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), and a member of the Electromagnetics Academy. He was the Chair of the Commission B of USNC-URSI for 2009—2011 and of the Gordon Research Conference on Plasmonics in 2012. He was selected as one of the Scientific American Magazine 50 Leaders in Science and Technology in 2006 for developing the concept of optical lumped nanocircuits, and was the recipient of the 2012 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, the 2008 George H. Heilmeier Award for Excellence in Research, the Fulbright Naples Chair Award, an NSF Presidential Young Investigator award, UPS Foundation Distinguished Educator term Chair, and several teaching awards. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters (2002—2007), of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION (1996—2001), and Radio Science (1991—1996). He was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. He is currently on the Editorial board of Waves in Random and Complex Media, Nanophotonics, Physical Review X (PRX), and of the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella Book Series in Radio Science. He served as an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecturer for the period 1997—99
References
[1] N. Engheta and R. W. Ziolkowski, (editors), Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations, Wiley-IEEE Press, 414 pages, June 2006.
[2] A.AIu and N. Engheta, “Theory, Modeling and Features of Optical Nanoantennas,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, special issue on “Antenna and Propagation at mm- and sub mm-waves” (co-guest editors: Carlos Fernandes, Duixian Lui, Jiro Hirokawa, Jorge Costa and Ronan Sauleau), Vol. 6, No. 4, Part 1, pp. 1508-1517, April 2013.
[3] N. Engheta, “Pursuing Near-Zero Response”, A perspective article in Science, Vol. 340, pp. 286-287, April 19, 2013.
[4] N. Engheta, “Circuits with Light at Nanoscales: Optical Nanocircuits Inspired by Metamaterials,” Science, Volume 317, Issue 1, SeptemberA 21, 2007, pp. 1698-1702.
[5] G. V. Eleftheriades and N. Engheta, “Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications in the Microwave and Optical Regimes [Scanning the Issue],” Proceedings of the IEEE , vol.99, no.10, pp.1618,1621, Oct. 2011
[6] A. Alu and N. Engheta, “Optical Metamaterials Based on Optical Nanocircuits,” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 99, no. 10, pp. 1669-1681, Oct. 2011