(Feb.9 ’15) Metamaterials – artificial nanostructures
engineered with electromagnetic properties not found in nature – offer
tantalizing future prospects such as high resolution optical microscopes and
superfast optical computers. To realize the vast potential of metamaterials,
however, scientists will need to hone their understanding of the fundamental
physics behind them. This will require accurately predicting nonlinear optical
properties – meaning that interaction with light changes a material’s
properties, for example, light emerges from the material with a different
frequency than when it entered. Help has arrived.