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

技术说明：该CAREER奖的研究部分旨在开发一类新型固态材料，这些材料在可见频率下具有强大的可调谐电和磁共振。这种材料有可能超越自然发生的介质的光学性质，使独特的光激发的磁模式，可调的折射率和可控的光学手性。这些超材料是使用两个破碎的“元原子”作为构建模块设计的，包括金属涂层的电介质纳米颗粒和金属纳米颗粒的紧密堆积的三聚体。它们有望实现可控的电和磁共振，以获得独特的折射率可调性，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设计，其合成是通过自下而上和自上而下组装的组合。光学和电子能谱技术被用来表征纳米级分辨率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特性都是通过光与材料相互作用的方式相互联系的。光是由振荡的电场和磁场组成的，但在可见光频率下，大多数材料只与电子元件相互作用。如果材料也能与磁性元件相互作用，将对科学技术产生深远的影响。该项目旨在开发一种新的固态材料，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介电构建块构成，表现出几何不对称性。此外，跨学科的教育活动向公众介绍了这些异国情调和提高能力的材料。PI从事本科生和研究生指导，K-12推广，会议研讨会组织和编写教科书。此外，PI还为当地博物馆开发了纳米光学艺术展览，展示了纳米艺术的历史，以及现代生活中纳米破碎纳米结构的异国情调和使能科学和应用。

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.