SGER: New Opportunitiues with Intrinsic Left-handed Metamaterials

这是一项探索性研究小额资助（SGER）奖。该项目将允许PI发现一类新的材料，即所谓的左手材料（LHM）的快速跟进。在普通材料中，电介电常数和磁导率都是正数。LHM是使磁导率和介电常数同时为负的复合材料。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出来了。例如，斯涅尔定律被颠倒了。在迄今为止的工作中，已经构建了在微波区域表现为LHM的材料。该SGER奖将允许探索理论和实验工作，以确定LHM材料是否可以在光学频率下制造。如果这能够实现，并且不确定这是否可能，LHM在光子材料，激光应用和其他技术领域的潜在影响将是实质性的。这是一个探索性研究（SGER）小额赠款奖。首席研究员和同事们已经生产出了一类新的复合材料，这些材料具有科学家们理论上认为可能的物理特性，但以前从未生产过。这种材料被称为左旋材料（LHM），因为它们在响应电磁辐射时逆转了在普通材料中观察到的许多物理性质。这种新型材料具有逆转多普勒效应等特性的能力，多普勒效应是指随着波源移动而改变波的频率的原理。因此，火车鸣笛声在火车接近时音调增高，在火车离开时音调降低。描述磁场和电场关系的麦克斯韦方程表明，微波辐射或光在这种新型材料中会表现出相反的效果，随着源的接近而转向较低的频率。同样，麦克斯韦方程组表明，由这种材料制成的透镜，不会像通常那样分散电磁辐射，而是会在电磁辐射通过时将其聚焦。该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。这种材料会有一些奇怪的特性，比如手电筒照在LHM板上时，会聚焦在另一侧的一点上。参与该项目的学生和博士后将在一个新的领域接受良好的培训，并将有资格在学术界，工业界和政府部门就业。

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.