SGER: New Opportunitiues with Intrinsic Left-handed Metamaterials

这是探索性研究的小额奖助金(SGER)。该项目将允许国际和平研究所发现一种新的材料--所谓的左手材料(LHM)--的快速后续行动。在正常材料中，电介电常数和磁导率都是正数。LHM是一种复合材料，其磁导率和介电常数同时为负值。LHM的性质与普通材料有很大的不同。当电磁辐射通过这种LHM介质传播时，LHM的一些最重要和非直观的特性就暴露了出来。例如，斯内尔定律是颠倒的。到目前为止，已经构建了在微波区表现为LHM的材料。该SGER奖将允许探索理论和实验工作，以确定是否可以在光学频率下制造LHM材料。如果能够实现这一点，目前还不确定这是否可能，LHM在光子材料、激光应用和其他技术领域的潜在影响将是巨大的。这是一个探索性研究小额补助金(SGER)奖。首席研究员和同事们制造了一种具有物理性能的新型复合材料，科学家们理论上认为这种材料可能是可能的，但以前从未生产过。这种材料被称为左手材料(LHM)，因为它们逆转了普通材料中观察到的许多物理性质，以响应电磁辐射。这种新型材料具有逆转多普勒效应等特性的能力，多普勒效应是一种随着波源的移动而改变波频率的原理。因此，火车鸣笛的音调随着火车的接近而升高，随着火车的减速而降低。麦克斯韦方程描述了磁场和电场之间的关系，它表明微波辐射或光在这类新材料中表现出相反的效果，随着源的接近而向更低的频率移动。同样，麦克斯韦公式表明，由这种材料制成的透镜，不是像往常那样分散电磁辐射，而是在电磁辐射通过时聚焦。这一SGER奖将允许探索理论和实验工作，以确定LHM材料是否可以在光学频率下制造。这种材料具有奇怪的性质，如手电筒照射到LHM平板上会聚焦到另一边的一点。从事该项目的学生和博士后将在一个新的领域接受出色的培训，并将有资格在学术界、工业界和政府部门找到一系列工作。

This is a Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) award. The project will allow a rapid follow-up to the PI's discovery of a new class of materials, the so-called left-handed materials (LHM). In normal materials, both the electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability are observed to be positive quantities. LHM are composite materials constructed so that the permeability and permittivity are simultaneously negative. The properties of LHM are quite different from ordinary materials. Some of the most important and non-intuitive properties of LHM are exposed when electromagnetic radiation propagates through such a LHM medium. For example, Snell's law is reversed. In work to date, materials have been constructed that behave as LHM in the microwave region. This SGER award will allow the exploration of theoretical and experimental work to determine if LHM materials can be fabricated at optical frequencies. If this can be achieved, and it is not known with certainty whether this will be possible, the potential impact of LHM in photonic materials, laser applications and other technical areas would be substantial.This is a Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) Award. The Principal Investigator and co-workers have produced a new class of composite materials with physical properties that scientists theorized might be possible, but had never before been produced. The materials are called left-handed materials (LHM) because they reverse many of the physical properties observed in ordinary materials in response to electromagnetic radiation. The new class of materials has the ability to reverse properties such as the Doppler effect, the principle that changes the frequency of waves as the source of the waves moves. Thus, a train whistle sounds higher in pitch as the train approaches and lower as the train recedes. Maxwell's equations, which describe the relationship between magnetic and electric fields, suggest that microwave radiation or light would show the opposite effect in this new class of materials, shifting to lower frequencies as the source approaches. Similarly, Maxwell's equations suggest that a lens made of such materials, instead of dispersing electromagnetic radiation as usual, would focus it as it passes through. This SGER award will allow the exploration of theoretical and experimental work to determine if LHM materials can be fabricated at optical frequencies.Such materials would have strange properties such as a flashlight shining on a LHM slab would be focused at a point on the other side. Students and post-docs working on this project will received excellent training in a new area, and will be qualified for a range of employment in academe, industry and government.