Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Metamaterials

Metamaterials are smart materials engineered to have properties not found in nature. They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals or plastics. The materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence.

Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them smart properties that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.
Potential applications of metamaterials are diverse and include optical filters, medical devices, remote aerospace applications, sensor detection and infrastructure monitoring, smart solar power management, crowd control, radomes, high-frequency battlefield communication and lenses for high-gain antennas, improving ultrasonic sensors, and even shielding structures from earthquakes.

A form of 'invisibility' was demonstrated using gradient-index materials.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one form of metamaterial. They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications.

The diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers - about 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Metamaterial research involves fields such as electrical engineering, electromagnetics, optics, solid state physics, microwave and antennae engineering, optoelectronics, material sciences, nanoscience and semiconductor engineering.

The Meissner effect ... the first metamaterial superconductor

Metamaterial Flat Lens

Terahertz Metamaterials. Terahertz waves are electromagnetic waves with frequencies higher than microwaves but lower than infrared radiation and visible light.