Nanostructured hyperbolic metamaterials: physics and devices

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Nanotechnology has paved the way for artificial materials which have electromagnetic, mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties beyond those which are ordinarily found in nature. According to many published technological roadmaps, merging photonics and nanotechnologies holds the promise:- to usher in a new generation of imaging devices for biomedical applications, to drive nanophotonics research for sustaining Moore's law and even address pressing societal needs of solar energy harvesting. The central theme of this research proposal is the understanding of the essential physics for new photonic devices based on nanofabricated metamaterials, where the bulk macroscopic material properties are governed and tailored at will, according to the constituent nanostructured building blocks. Metamaterials are artificial structured media which allow unprecedented control over the flow of light at the nano and macro scales. The artificial nanostructured media to be investigated as part of this proposal are Hyperbolic Metamaterials (HMMs) which derive their properties from a counterintuitive electromagnetic response, not found in nature. The aim of this research program is twofold: to understand fundamental properties of HMMs and simultaneously explore HMM based devices in three seemingly disconnected applications: imaging, quantum optics and renewable energy. On the imaging front, we will look at how artificial materials can extend the capabilities of conventional microscopes; in the quantum optics direction we will look at efficient ways of harnessing light at the nanoscale and along the renewable energy direction we will explore devices which can efficiently harvest solar energy when assisted by artificial nanostructured media. The central theme surrounding these applications is the unique electromagnetic states characteristic of Hyperbolic Metamaterials.