About the project
This project will investigate the production and properties of a new class of optical metamaterials which are nanostructured on the 2 to 100 nm range by a versatile bottom-up approach utilising self-assembled lyotropic liquid crystal phases of lipids and surfactants for templating.
This class of materials include embodiments in which the nanostructures are fully three dimensional including one which is like interpenetrating chain link fences with “links” only a few nanometers across.
The well-defined nanostructure present in these materials will lead to entirely new properties and thus they will be true metamaterials in which 40% of all the atoms are at or near a surface, i.e. an engineered metamaterial almost entirely composed of surface atoms.
Examples of the properties include light-plasmon non-linearities and in particular the possibility of grating coupling to surface plasmon polaritons using a photoinduced grating, modification of light emission from emitters embedded in the dielectric portion of the materials including the enhancement of dipole forbidden transitions, and massive enhancement of optical non-linearities such as e.g. Raman scattering as well as a negative refractive index. The range of potential applications is vast ranging from metamaterial cloaking materials, nanolasers to high speed optical computing.
As well as carrying out research training in a world-leading research group, membership of CISDnS will provide the opportunity for you to be exposed and trained to handle the interdisciplinary challenges faced in the real-world via a Systems Thinking approach.
You will learn about the wider challenges of research and innovation within the Defence & Security sector from both your peers and the numerous industry partners supporting the Centre.
