Enabling Metamaterial Platforms for Communications, Sensing, and Imaging

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In building a better device or system, we are ultimately bound by the properties of the materials available to us. The advent of engineered metamaterials (MTMs) effectively removes this constraint, as they afford us unprecedented versatility in achieving, controlling, and manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves for useful purposes. Among the research successes of my first NSERC Discovery grant was the discovery of several new MTM-enabled properties, which we expect will lead to important new design paradigms and device functionalities that can benefit industries ranging from telecommunications to biomedicine. The proposed research program shall leverage these early results and pursue other fundamental directions suggested by them, towards a long-term goal of establishing a MTM-design platform that addresses the current, critical need for (1) high-frequency techniques, (2) low-cost/complexity solutions, (3) a multitude of geometries, and (4) tunable/adaptive properties. This shall be achieved through four short-term objectives: the first will develop analytical tools enabling cylindrical or other shaped MTM geometries to be analyzed/synthesized based on techniques developed for more familiar rectangular geometries; the second is focused on the realization of fully printed and easily assembled MTM imaging and sensing devices employing tunable materials in useful high-frequency regimes such as the millimetre- (mm-) wave; the third shall employ the results of the first objective to implement cylindrical MTM liners to miniaturize circular-waveguide-based systems including probe antennas and traveling-wave magnetic-resonance imaging (TW-MRI) scanners; the last will extend our waveguide-miniaturization concepts to develop compact 'metasurfaces' (MTSs) consisting of miniaturized apertures for use as radiation-pattern-shaping antenna substrates/superstrates and EM shields. These objectives are rich in analytical and computational value, but are ultimately structured for rapid experimental validation and practical application, and they are expected to fully leverage the University of Alberta's world-class microfabrication facilities. This practical focus shall also integrate the needs of Canadian industrial partners, resulting in direct benefits to Canadian R & D and engendering confidence in the commercial viability of MTMs. My long-term vision is to see MTMs adopted by industry as a mainstream alternative to conventional materials in the realization of smaller, more efficient, or cheaper devices and to sustain commercial interest by continued academic exploration of their useful properties. The interdisciplinary nature of the proposed research program affords unique and ample opportunities to train HQP in a wide range of tools and techniques, and will encourage expertise in MTMs research, much of which originated in Canada, to remain and grow in Canada.