FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS OF METAMATERIALS AND RELATED STRUCTURES

超材料是一个新兴的领域，它为发现新的物理现象提供了巨大的机会，并在几个应用学科中加以利用。电磁超材料是一种人工结构的介质，具有不寻常的电磁特性，如负折射率。通常，它们包括亚波长金属介电内含物的排列，可以使用介电常数和渗透率张量进行宏观均匀化。围绕超材料的科学兴奋可以通过以下问题来具体化：如果我们能够合成具有用户定义的电磁参数的材料，将会发生什么？在本提案中，我们描述了一个计划，以解决这个基本问题的某些方面，长期目标是利用相应的材料进行几个开创性的微波和光学应用。主要的重点将放在微波领域，但一些活动也将致力于光学领域。受超材料启发的相关结构（在某种意义上，它们可以执行超材料的一些功能，但不能用有效材料张量严格描述）也将被考虑。这些超材料及其相关结构的预期应用领域包括亚波长成像和传感（例如用于医疗/生物应用）、用于无线通信的紧凑多功能天线、超分辨率雷达和传感器、高效无线电力传输（例如用于未来汽车的“充电”）、医疗治疗（例如用于热疗）、国防、射频/光学仪器和高速数字互连。

Metamaterials is an emerging field which offers great opportunities for discovering new physical phenomena and for exploiting them in several application disciplines. Electromagnetic metamaterials in particular are artificially structured media with unusual electromagnetic properties, such as a negative index of refraction. Typically, they comprise an arrangement of sub-wavelength metallo-dielectric inclusions which can be macroscopically homogenized using permittivity and permeability tensors. The scientific excitement surrounding metamaterials can be crystallized by asking the question: What would be possible if we were able to synthesize materials with user-defined electromagnetic parameters? In this proposal, we are describing a program to tackle some aspects of this fundamental question with a long term aim at utilizing the corresponding materials for several groundbreaking microwave and optical applications. The main emphasis will be placed to the microwave regime but some activities will be devoted to the optical regime as well. Related structures that are inspired by metamaterials (in the sense that they can perform some of the functions of metamaterials but cannot be strictly described by effective material tensors) will also be considered. Envisioned application areas of these metamaterials and their related structures include sub-wavelength imaging and sensing (e.g. for medical/biological applications), compact and multifunctional antennas for wireless telecommunications, super-resolution radars and sensors, efficient wireless power transfer (e.g. for 'charging' up the cars of the future), medical therapeutics (e.g. for hyperthermia), defense, RF/optical instrumentation and high-speed digital interconnects.