1,722,302 research outputs found
Photonic-plasmonic devices: a 7-nm light pen makes its mark
No full textAn optical probe has been developed for the chemical mapping of materials at the nanoscale by combining plasmonics, Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy
Optical properties on demand: reconfigurable and coherently controlled metamaterials
No full textTransmission and reflection properties, anisotropy, chirality, optical nonlinearity and luminescent of metamaterials can be controlled at will using dynamic nanostructures reconfigurable with electromagnetic forces and by exploiting structured illumination with coherent light
A roadmap for metamaterials
No full textMetamaterials have rapidly advanced over the past few years - from being a paradigm for engineering unique electromagnetic properties to forming a material base for functional devices with tuneable, switchable and nonlinear capabilities. In the future, they will allow for dynamic quantum-effect-enabled systems offering exciting applications that we have not yet imagined
Editorial. The next photonic revolution
No full textThis special section on Nanophotonics and Metamaterials is a follow-up to the second European Topical Meeting of the NANOMETA series of meetings (see www.nanometa.org) which took place on 5-8 January 2009, in Seefeld, Austria.The main idea of the first NANOMETA meeting held in 2007 was to bring together the mature community of microwave electrical engineers with the emerging community of photonics researchers interested in the physics of light coupled to nanostructures.In recent years the research landscape has shifted dramatically. A wider proliferation of nanofabrication techniques such as electron beam lithography, nanoimprint and focused ion beam milling, diagnostics techniques such as near-field scanning imaging, cathodoluminescence with nanoscale resolution and micro-spectrometry, and the availability of affordable broadband and ultrafast optical sources, have moved the research focus of the NANOMETA community to the optical domain. Quite naturally the ideas of the nonlinearity of materials and the coherency of light in the nanoscale realm have been widely discussed. Driven by the dream of untapped device and material functionality, nonlinear and switchable nanophotonic devices and photonic metamaterials, along with the concept of tailoring the electromagnetic space with metamaterials, appear to be the main avenues along which the subject will develop in the coming years.Indeed, in the last 20 years photonics has played a key role in creating the world as we know it, with enormous beneficial social impact worldwide. It is impossible to imagine modern society without the globe-spanning broadband internet and mobile telephony made possible by the implementation of optical fibre core networks, optical disc data storage (underpinned by the development of compact semiconductor lasers), modern image display technologies and laser-assisted manufacturing.We now anticipate that the next photonic revolution will continue to grow, explosively fuelled by a new dependence upon active and switchable photonic metamaterials and nanophotonic devices. This revolution will lead to dramatic new science and applications on a global scale in all technologies using light, from data storage to optical processing of information, from sensing to light harvesting and energy conversion.Five plenary talks at the conference outlined its topical boundaries. They were given by Sir Michael Berry, Bristol University, UK, who spoke on the new topic of optical super-oscillations; Harry A Atwater, California Institute of Technology, USA, who gave an overview of recent developments in plasmonics; Christian Colliex, Université Paris-Sud, France, who presented the concept of electron energy-loss spectroscopy for the study of localized plasmons; Xiang Zhang, University of California at Berkeley, USA, who talked about recent achievements in the optical super-lens, and Antoinette Taylor, National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA, who discussed recent work on tunable terahertz metamaterials. In the specially assigned 'breakthrough' talks Steven Anlage, University of Maryland, USA, introduced the emerging field of superconducting meta-materials, Tobias Kippenberg, Max-Planck-Institut, Garching, Germany, talked about cavity optomechanics on a chip, while Misha Lukin, Harvard University, USA, explored the field of quantum plasmonics and Victor Prinz, Russian Academy of Science, Russia, introduced a novel class of metamaterials based on three-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures.The topical scope of this special section, to a great extent, echoes the paradigm shift in the NANOMETA community and includes papers on nanofabrication of plasmonic structure, transformation optics and invisibility, mapping of fields in nanostructures, nonlinear and magnetoplasmonic media, coherent effects in metamaterials, loss compensation in nanostructures, slow light and ultrafast switching of plasmon signals, and many other topics.The Guest Editor of this special section and the co-chairs of NANOMETA-2009, on behalf of the conference organising committee and the European Physical Society, would like to thank the Nature Publishing Group for sponsoring the meeting and IOP Publishing for supporting and putting together this follow-up special section. We would like to take this opportunity to invite members of the nanophotonics and metamaterials communities to take part in the next NANOMETA conference to be held in Seefeld, Austria, 3-6 January 2011.<br/
The road ahead for metamaterials
No full textMetamaterials are artificial media structured on a size scale smaller than the wavelength of external stimuli. Whereas conventional materials derive their electromagnetic characteristics from the properties of atoms and molecules, metamaterials enable us to design our own “atoms” and thus access new functionalities, such as invisibility and imaging, with unlimited resolution. <br/
Single nanoparticle as photonic switch and optical memory element
No full textWe review the concept of using nanoparticles undergoing light-induced transformations between structural phases with different optical properties as key components of optical gate and memory elements, with the potential to operate on picosecond timescales at femtojoule energy levels
What diffraction limit?
No full textSeveral approaches are capable of beating the classical 'diffraction limit'. In the optical domain, not only are superlenses a promising choice: concepts such as super-oscillations could provide feasible alternatives
Artificial chiral materials
No full textIn 1898 Acharya J C Bose, a researcher from Calcutta, India, wrote in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: 'In order to imitate the rotation by liquids like sugar solutions, I made elements of "molecules" of twisted jute, of two varieties, one kind being twisted to the right (positive) and the other twisted to the left (negative).... The twisted structure produces an optical twist of the plane of polarization'. This paper[1], published 111 years ago and reporting experimental microwave tests on the optical activity of the artificial chiral medium, was the first publication on what has now become a flourishing and dynamic field of metamaterials - man-made media with all sorts of unusual functionalities that can be achieved by artificial structuring smaller than the wavelength scale of the external stimulus. An increasing number of researchers are currently designing, fabricating and studying artificial metamaterials composed of tailored chiral building blocks that may be viewed as 'artificial chiral molecules'. This special section is devoted to this vibrant and emerging research direction and has a special emphasis on the theory of light interactions with artificial chiral media
Metamaterial-induced transparency: sharp fano resonances and slow light
No full textInspired by the study of atomic resonances, researchers have developed a new type of metamaterial. Their work paves the way toward compact delay lines and slow-light device
Mimicking quantum phenomena with classical meta-materials
No full textWe aim to explore some parallels between the well established quantum effects and electromagnetic response of meta-materials. Keystone quantum phenomena like Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), Bose-Einstein Condensation, laser emission, the Mossbauer Effect, the Meissner Effect, and β-decay are among those that have intriguingly close counterparts in electromagnetic meta-materials
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