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Metamaterial Puzzle Solved

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NORFOLK, Va., and CORVALLIS, Ore., Dec. 16, 2008 -- Researchers have solved one of the significant remaining challenges with photonic “metamaterials,” discovering a way to prevent the loss of light as it passes through these materials, and opening the door to many important new optical, electronic and communication technologies.

“This is a significant breakthrough,” said Mikhail Noginov, professor in the department of physics and the Center for Materials Research at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va. The advance was made by Noginov and other scientists at Norfolk State, working with Viktor Podolskiy, an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University (OSU).

“The ability to compensate for optical loss is a very large step forward for the whole field of active plasmonics,” said Podolskiy. “Some of the most important potential applications in this field have been held back by this problem.”

These metamaterials, which gain their properties from their structure rather than directly from their composition, have been seen as a key to a possible “superlens” that would have an extraordinary level of resolution and be able to “see” things the size of a nanometer (a human hair is 100,000 nm wide).

They could also be important in machine visions systems, electronics manufacturing, computers limited only by the speed of light, and a range of new communications concepts. A “cloaking device” to hide objects is also a possibility.

“Many of the fantastic possible applications of these materials have been largely prevented by the obstacle of the absorption loss,” Noginov said. “That’s a big problem that we should now be able to work past.”

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Photonic metamaterials are engineered composite materials with unique electromagnetic properties, and have attracted significant research interest in recent years due to their potential to create negative index materials that bend light the opposite way of anything found in the natural world. But their performance has been significantly limited by the absorption of light by metals that are part of their composition – metal might absorb much more than 50 percent of the light shined on it, and drastically reduce the performance of devices based on these materials.

The solution to this problem, researchers discovered, is to offset this lost light by adding an optical “gain” to a dielectric adjacent to the metal. The new study outlines how to successfully do that, and demonstrates the ability to completely compensate for lost light. It had been theorized that this might be possible, the researchers said, but it had never before been done, and the theories themselves were the subject of much scientific debate.

As such, this may have removed a final roadblock and now made possible “a number of dreamed about applications,” Podolskiy said.

“Our work proves that the compensation of surface plasmon polariton loss by gain is indeed possible, opening the road for many practical applications of nanoplasmonics and metamaterials,” the researchers wrote in their study. “Besides resolving of the fundamental limitations of modern nanoplasmonics, the observed phenomenon adds a new emission source to the toolbox of active optical metamaterials.”

The work was published Nov. 25 in Physical Review Letters.

For more information, visit: www.nsu.edu

Published: December 2008
Glossary
adsorption
The process by which a substance, usually a solid, attracts and retains on its surface the molecules of another substance.
dielectric
Exhibiting the characteristic of materials that are electrical insulators or in which an electric field can be sustained with a minimum dispersion of power. They exhibit nonlinear properties, such as anisotropy of conductivity or polarization, or saturation phenomena.
electronics
That branch of science involved in the study and utilization of the motion, emissions and behaviors of currents of electrical energy flowing through gases, vacuums, semiconductors and conductors, not to be confused with electrics, which deals primarily with the conduction of large currents of electricity through metals.
light
Electromagnetic radiation detectable by the eye, ranging in wavelength from about 400 to 750 nm. In photonic applications light can be considered to cover the nonvisible portion of the spectrum which includes the ultraviolet and the infrared.
machine vision
Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically computers, to interpret and understand visual information from the world, much like the human visual system. It involves the development and application of algorithms and systems that allow machines to acquire, process, analyze, and make decisions based on visual data. Key aspects of machine vision include: Image acquisition: Machine vision systems use various...
metamaterial
Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These materials are designed to manipulate electromagnetic waves in ways that are not possible with conventional materials. Metamaterials typically consist of structures or elements that are smaller than the wavelength of the waves they interact with. Key characteristics of metamaterials include: Negative refraction index: One of the most notable features of certain...
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
adsorptionBasic SciencecloakingCommunicationscomputersdielectricelectronicsfiber opticsindustriallightmachine visionmetamaterialMikhail NoginovnanoplasmonicsNews & FeaturesNorfolk Stateoptical gainOregon StateOSUphotonicphotonicsPhysical Review Lettersplasmonicsuperlenssurface plasmon polaritonViktor Podolskiy

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