The road ahead for nanophotonics

Zheludev, N.I. (2010) The road ahead for nanophotonics. 7th International Workshop on Functional and Nanonstructured Materials (FNMA '10), Malta. 16 - 20 Jul 2010.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Other)

Abstract

The next stage of photonic technological revolution will be the development of active, controllable and nonlinear metamaterials surpassing natural media as platforms for optical data processing and quantum information applications. Metamaterials are artificial media structured on a scale smaller than the wavelength of external stimuli. Conventional materials derive an origin for their electromagnetic characteristics in the properties of atoms and molecules – metamaterials enable us to design our own 'atoms' and thus access new ground breaking functionalities such as invisibility and imaging with unlimited resolution. The next stage of this technological revolution will be the development of active, controllable and nonlinear metamaterials surpassing natural media as platforms for optical data processing and quantum information applications [1]. Metamaterials are expected to have an impact across the entire range of technologies where electromagnetic radiation is used, and provide a flexible platform for modelling and mimicking fundamental physical effects as diverse as superconductivity and cosmology and for templating electromagnetic landscapes to facilitate observations of otherwise difficult to detect phenomena. We report an overview on our recent results on achieving new functionalities in nanostructured photonic metamaterials containing nonlinear and active media such as switchable chalcogenide glass, carbon nanotubes, graphene, semiconductor quantum dots and report on exciting plasmonic properties of superconducting metamaterials.

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