CAREER: Symmetry Breaking in Metamaterials: Giving a "Twist" to Light-Matter Interactions

技术描述：该职业奖的研究部分旨在开发一种新型固态材料，在可见频率下表现出强大的、可调谐的电和磁共振。这种材料具有超越自然介质光学特性的潜力，能够实现磁模式的独特光激发、可调折射率和可控制的光学手性。这些超材料的设计使用了两个对称破碎的“元原子”作为构建块，包括一个金属涂层的电介质纳米新月和一个紧密排列的金属纳米颗粒三聚体。它们有望实现具有独特折射率可维持性的可控电和磁共振，并由于电偶极子和磁偶极子之间的强相互作用而导致手性和光学活性。理论计算指导元原子的设计，其合成是通过自下而上和自上而下组装的结合。光学和电子能谱技术被用于表征纳米尺度分辨率提出的超材料的电和磁模式。非技术描述：物体的颜色、太阳能电池的效率和光纤通信的物理原理都是通过光与材料相互作用的方式相互联系的。光由振荡的电场和磁场组成，但在可见频率下，大多数材料只与电成分相互作用。如果材料也能与磁性组分相互作用，将对科学技术产生深远的影响。该项目旨在开发一种新型固态材料，这种材料可以与光的电和磁成分相互作用。这些材料由纳米级金属和电介质构成，具有几何不对称性。此外，跨学科的教育活动向公众介绍这些异国情调和使能的材料。PI从事本科生和研究生指导，K-12外展，会议专题讨论会组织和编写教科书。此外，PI还为当地博物馆举办了纳米光学艺术展，展示纳米艺术的历史，以及现代生活中对称破碎纳米结构的奇异科学和应用。

Technical Description: The research component of this CAREER award aims to develop a new class of solid-state materials exhibiting strong, tunable electric and magnetic resonances at visible frequencies. Such materials have the potential to transcend the optical properties of naturally-occurring media, enabling unique optical excitation of magnetic modes, tunable refractive indices, and controllable optical chirality. These metamaterials are designed using two symmetry-broken "meta-atoms" as building blocks, including a metal-coated dielectric nanocrescent and a close-packed trimer of metallic nanoparticles. They are expected to enable a controlled electric and magnetic resonance for unique refractive index tenability, and lead to chirality and optical activity as a result of a strong interaction between electric and magnetic dipoles. Theoretical calculations guide meta-atom design, whose synthesis is through a combination of bottom-up and top-down assembly. Optical and electron spectroscopy techniques are used to characterize the electric and magnetic modes of the proposed metamaterials with nanometer-scale resolution.Non-technical Description: The color of objects, the efficiency of solar cells, and the physics of fiber-optical communications are all interconnected by the way light interacts with materials. Light is composed of oscillating electric and magnetic fields, but at visible frequencies, most materials only interact with the electric component. If materials could also interact with magnetic component, there would be profound implications in science and technologies. This project is designed to develop a new class of solid-state materials that interact with both the electric and magnetic component of light. These materials are constructed from nanoscale metal and dielectric building blocks exhibiting geometric asymmetry. In addition, cross-disciplinary education activities introduce the public to these exotic and enabling materials. The PI engages in undergraduate and graduate mentoring, K-12 outreach, conference symposia organization, and writing a textbook. Further, the PI develops a nano-optics art exhibit for local museums, featuring the history of nano in art, as well as the exotic and enabling science and applications of symmetry-broken nanostructures in modern life.