Nader Engheta plenary: Sculpting Waves

In electronics, controlling and manipulating flow of charged carriers has led to design of numerous functional devices. In photonics, by analogy, this is done through controlling photons and optical waves. The challenges and opportunities are different in the two fields.

In this plenary talk, Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania describes how his lab is expanding the properties of natural optical materials to create novel metamaterials with properties not found in nature.

Engheta's lab has demonstrated how waves can be confined to propagate along a single-atom-thick layer of graphene despite the wavelength of the light being larger than the height of the metamaterial surface. These 2D metasurfaces lend themselves to being used to recreate typical wavelength guiding devices on the nano scale, such as optical splitters, fiber optic cables, and even wavelength guides. Optical metamaterials are used to create analogs of typical electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

Nader Engheta is the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with affiliations in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Bioengineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He received his BS degree from the University of Tehran, and his MS and PhD degrees from Caltech.