Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jay B Bargeron
Overview
- Personal Background in Metamaterials
- Introduction to Metamaterials
- Definition of Metamaterial - How Metamaterials work
- Microwave Metamaterials
- Optical Metamaterials - Conclusions
Personal Background
Introduction to Metamaterials
Introduction to Metamaterials
Electromagnetic waves - Not much difference between 1kHz (=300km) and 1THz (=0.3mm) Why cant optical light (Terahertz frequency) go through walls like microwaves? - Material response varies at different frequencies - Determined by atomic structure and arrangement (10-10 m). How can we alter a materials electromagnetic properties? - 1 method is to introduce periodic features that are electrically small over a given frequency range, that appear atomic at those frequencies
Introduction to Metamaterials
Whats in a name? - Meta- means altered, changed or higher, beyond Why are they called Metamaterials? - Existing materials only exhibit a small subset of electromagnetic properties theoretically available - Metamaterials can have their electromagnetic properties altered to something beyond what can be found in nature. - Can achieve negative index of refraction, zero index of refraction, magnetism at optical frequencies, etc.
Definition of Metamaterial
- Metamaterial coined in the late 1990s
- According to David R. Smith, any material composed of periodic, macroscopic structures so as to achieve a desired electromagnetic response can be referred to as a Metamaterial
-(very broad definition) -Others prefer to restrict the term Metamatetial to materials with electromagnetic properties not found in nature
r r
r r (e
)(e
1/ 2
(e j / 2 )(e j / 2 ) e j 1
To appear homogeneous, the structures would have to be electrically small and spaced electrically close
Microwave Metamaterials
Early metamaterials relied on a combination of Split-ring resonators (SSRs) and conducting wires/posts
Conducting posts are polarized by the electric field, generating the desired r for all frequencies below a certain cutoff frequency.
Microwave Metamaterials
Other approaches for fabricating microwave metamaterials have also been developed - Transmission line models using shunt inductors for affecting r and series capacitors for affecting r. This method, however, is restrained to 1D or 2D fabrication
Microwave Metamaterials
Conducting wires/posts can be replaced with loops that mimic an LC resonating response. SRRs are still required to affect r.
Microwave Metamaterials
Proven areas of Microwave Metamaterials:
Microwave cloaking by bending EM rays using graded indices of refraction Currently limited to relatively narrow bandwidths and specific polarizations
Microwave Metamaterials
Proven areas of Microwave Metamaterials: Sub-wavelength antennas - n = 0 in metamaterial - capable of directionality - same antenna can be used for multiple frequency bands - currently used in Netgear wireless router (feat. right) and the LG Chocolate BL40
Microwave Metamaterials
Tuneable metamaterials: Consider a 2-D metamaterial, with series capacitance to affect its EM response - This capacitance can be tuned via ferroelectric varactors, affecting the index of refraction of the material The size of the split in SRRs can also be adjusted, from fully closed to fully open (see Fig. right)
Microwave Metamaterials
Planar microwave focusing lens Researchers at University of Colorado have achieved a planar array for focusing microwave radar -Though not touted as metamaterial, meets the requirements under the broad definition of metamaterials. The Perfect Lens J.B. Pendry theoretically described how a rectangular lens with n = -1 could make a perfect lens capable of resolving sub-wavelength features.
-Researchers in China, using a planar Transmission Line type of metamaterial to focus a point source (480 MHz) , managed to achieve sub-diffraction focusing down to 0.08)
Reality: Law of Causilty - We cannot see into the future OR even the present - While phase velocity can exceed c, group velocity cannot - Any change in energy/frequency will propagate through the metamaterial slower than c.
Optical Metamaterials
Fabrication/Design Challenges for optical metamaterials: Smaller wavelength = smaller features
- Coupling between elements becomes more serious
Optical Metamaterials
Most research on optical metamaterials has been at the theoretical stage
- Mathematically characterizing nanoscale plasmonice effects. - Computer simulations of proposed designs. Relatively little work has been done with physically realized optical metamaterials
Optical Metamaterials
Rare example of 3D optical metamaterial. Gold nanostructures with 70nm spacing between layers.
Optical Metamaterials
Experimental measurements of the previous optical metamaterial
Conclusions
Introduction of metamaterials in 1990s opened new possibilities in electromagnetics. Successful implementation of metamaterial technology in the microwave spectrum.
Fin
Questions???